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1. Extent 1060 N Y Extent 1060 1 x N Receiving Means 1044 N Preece cere Tee ee eee eee ee eee e ree n Cree aCe ee os I pecial Effects Devices 10160000 wp o w A Ae n i rel K i HE x pn E m we at 1 i i 3 n i i Nd s Neg n isi qu M 4 Receiving MU Device 101601 m _ Means 1044 1 101205 Camera y T M Wireless Comm iu i5 eX Body Extent f 1016 N Z 10120 Link 10407777 8 V 1076 M Tus Mesa u be S 4 re i gt lt Us Wireless Comm xL M Link 1040 MEL Camera Body Camera E i Control s 1004 Body 1008 AL Camera PPS Body Extent i 1080 i 4 Transmitting Means 1036 EEEN EEA EEA wg tle pia PES kt Hing Means 1032 777 Z un i n Um Y is Wireless Comm Remote Device Controller 1028 7 Pure NM Link 1040 Device A D gt Eie Device 10200 Alt Device 7 evite i Fue 1024 N Extent 1068 7 Device 10240 Extent 09 IM N Dons ci og i DUROS Doc S yi OTAN nis e E Receiving P Receiving Device Receiving Means 105604 Means 105201 Putent 106809 77 Means 1056 1 Alt Device 7 Extent 1072 N FIG 10 1000 US 8 326 136 B1 Sheet 12 of 13 Dec 4 2012 U
2. 1 44 8180210 B2 5 2012 Clark ASH Transceiver Impedance Matching Document Created on Dec 2001 0042149 Al 11 2001 Ito et al 10 2001 pp 1 to 10 http www rfm com products apnotes anten 2002 0009296 1 1 2002 Shaper et al namatch pdf last viewed on Dec 15 2005 2002 0067425 Al 6 2002 Iverson Canon EOS 40D Usuer s Manual about Sep 2007 Canon Corpo 2002 0067923 Al 6 2002 Fujimura tation US 8 326 136 B1 Page3 Declaration of James E Clark filed Feb 18 2005 in U S Appl No 10 306 759 Ken Rockwell How to Use Nikon Strobes Wirelessly for Free Dec 17 2005 http web archive org web 20051217091704 http www kenrockwell com nikon ittlslave htm last viewed at Internet archive on Apr 1 2010 Nikon D2x Sep 2004 pp 1 to 12 Nikon Corporation Nikon WT 1 Transmitter User s Manual around Dec 2003 Nikon Corporation Nikon WT 2 Article Part 1 Nikon Corporation http nikonimaging com global technology scene 1 1 index htm last viewed on Mar 14 2008 Nikon WT 2 Article Part 2 Nikon Corporation http nikonimaging com global technology scene 1l index 02 htm last viewed Mar 14 2008 Phil Askey Nikon D2H Review 15 Wireless Digital Photography Review Wireless Review of WT 1 Transmitter Dec 2003 http www dpreview com reviews NikonD2H pagelS asp last viewed on Mar 18 2008 Phil Askey Nikon D2H Review 1 Introduction Digital Photogra phy Review Nikon D2H Review Dec 200
3. XC NEC 5 LAN 4328 AF Assist ist change level 1009 and change levet 25 ex Delay 2 seconds 42 3 V 420 Backlight wE BA aa A Backlight ON Device ON b Cha Help hy 5 4 S es Ri L412 menus B BE mw eh vou a L od adim id DAC uet y pee i Ey E A s 4 404 FIG 4 U S Patent Dec 4 2012 Sheet 6 of 13 US 8 326 136 B1 500 525 GENERATE AND TRANSMIT IOC SIGNAL WITH FIRST SET _ ILLUMINATION VALUE 530 PLENER SEDEN 535 CAUSE MODELING LIGHT TO MODE ENABLED 7 CHANGE TO SECOND SET ILLUMINATION VALUE OMB B YES 575 PP CHG SIGNAL JUST SEN GENERATE AND TRANSMIT POWER CHANGE SIGNAL WITH _ FIRST SET POWER VALUE GENERATE AND TRANSMIT CHANGE SIGNAL WITH SECOND aa SET POWER VALUE AAACASA a s ARAN AAR ARAMA AAA FIG 5A U S Patent Dec 4 2012 Sheet 7 of 13 US 8 326 136 B1 500 M N RRNA WAKE SIGNAL DETECTED 9 GENERATE AND TRANSMIT IOC SIGNAL WITH FIRST BET POWER VALUE CAUSE REMOTE DEVICE TO CHANGE TO SECOND SET POWER VALUE U S Patent Dec 4 2012 Sheet 8 of 13 US 8 326 136 B1 604 608 VOLTAGE 5 S DELAY 100 LIGHT ap OUTPUT cp 5 S DELAY
4. tings e g transmit and receive frequencies device identi fication codes etc among other things Those skilled in the art will understand all ofthe various types of information that can needs to be stored in memory 312 to make controller 216 a device that functions according to the concepts disclosed herein Continuing with this illustrative example external com munications port 316 is provided for transferring information to and from controller 216 This allows a user to custom configure controller 216 and provide any needed operational settings for a particular application of the controller In the present example communications port 316 is a USB port However any other type of communications port including a wireless port e g Bluetooth IEEE 802 11 etc can be provided in place of or in addition to USB port 316 In this connection FIG 4 illustrates controller 216 in an information transfer environment 400 In this example controller 216 is connected to a suitable programming device such as laptop computer 404 shown via a USB cable 408 since in this example external communications port 316 is a USB port Laptop computer 404 provides a convenient vehicle for pre senting to a user a graphical user interface GUI 412 of a software application not shown but running on the laptop computer in a conventional manner designed for interacting with controller 216 GUI 412 is shown presenting a screen 416 that allows a user t
5. 13 169 413 Mar 22 2012 Notice of Allowance now S Pat No 8 180 210 S Appl No 13 438 500 Jun 18 2012 Office Action S Appl No 12 129 447 Apr 12 2010 Notice of Allowance now S Pat No 7 775 575 S Appl No 12 129 447 Apr 12 2010 Examiner Amendment w U S Pat No 7 775 575 S Appl No 12 129 402 Apr 19 2010 Notice of Allowance now S Pat No 7 783 188 S Appl No 12 861 445 Sep 30 2010 Notice of Allowance now S Pat No 7 885 533 S Appl No 13 021 951 Nov 25 2011 Notice of Allowance U S Appl No 13 021 951 Feb 13 2012 Withdrawal of Notice of Allowance U S Appl No 13 021 951 Feb 22 2012 Office Action U S Appl No 13 253 596 Nov 30 2011 Office Action U S Appl No 13 253 596 Feb 29 2012 Response to Office Action U S Appl No 13 253 596 May 9 2012 Final Office Action U S Appl No 12 705 052 Mar 27 2012 Office Action U S Appl No 12 705 052 Jun 27 2012 Response to Office Action U S Appl No 12 705 096 Mar 12 2012 Office Action U S Appl No 12 705 096 Jun 12 2012 Response to Office Action U S Appl No 12 705 164 Mar 29 2012 Office Action U S Appl No 12 705 164 Jun 29 2012 Response to Office Action s 2 CCo B Gye OV HO Cueucub O GaGa GUCCI C CUM C Go c m C GC te t tn ta ta ta tn tn tn tn S S
6. For example FIG 11 illustrates a scenario within a pho tography studio 1100 in which a remote device controller not shown but the same as or similar to remote device controller 1028 of FIG 10 is used to control non modeling lighting devices specifically general studio lighting devices 1104 a special effects fan 1108 and an in scene lighting device i e a post lamp 1112 In this example the remote device control ler is configured in a manner similar to controller 216 of FIGS 2 and 3 has settings similar to the settings shown in GUI 412 of FIG 4 and performs the steps of method 500 of FIGS 5A B at least with respect to Wake mode 420 and Backlight mode 428 FIG 4 In particular and as described below in more detail Wake mode 420 is used to control both fan 1108 and postlamp 1112 and Backlight mode 428 is used to control studio lighting devices 1104 Studio 1100 contains a scene 1116 to be photographed using a camera body 1120 In this example scene 1116 includes post lamp 1112 a table 1124 a bowl 1128 and a lit candle 1132 resting on the table Scene 1116 is to be a very dimly lit scene with the only light to be present when images are being captured by camera body 1120 during the image acquisition phase being low levels of light from post light 1112 and from lit candle 1132 Light levels during image acquisition are to be so low that any ambient lighting other than light from post light 1112 and lit candle 1132 must be ext
7. Mar 24 2008 Examiner Interview Sum mary now U S Pat No 7 437 063 S Appl No 11 697 241 Jun 9 2008 Notice of Allowance now S Pat No 7 437 063 S Appl 12 250 914 Jun 12 2009 Office Action now U S at No 7 702 228 5 Appl No 12 250 914 Jun 29 2009 Response to Office Action and Terminal Disclaimer now U S Pat No 7 702 228 B a cu c Bc Cu PO c BE C C V CL WC Beet a rici a cic US 8 326 136 B1 Page4 S Appl No 12 250 914 Oct 28 2009 Terminal Disclaimer now S Pat No 7 702 228 S Appl No 12 250 914 Dec 3 2009 Notice of Allowance now S Pat No 7 702 228 S Appl No 12 762 811 Dec 28 2010 Office Action now U S enl Pat No 7 970 267 U S Appl No 12 762 811 Mar 28 2011 Response to Office Action now U S Pat No 7 970 267 U S Appl No 12 762 811 Mar 28 2011 Terminal Disclaimer now U S Pat No 7 970 267 U S Appl No 12 762 811 Apr 20 2011 Notice of Allowance now U S Pat No 7 970 267 U S Appl No 13 169 413 Dec 20 2011 Office Action now U S Pat No 8 180 210 S Appl No 13 169 413 Jan 16 2012 Response to Office Action w U S Pat No 8 180 210 S Appl No 13 169 413 Jan 16 2012 Terminal Disclaimers now S Pat No 8 180 210 S Appl No
8. S S S S S S S S S S S S S S Appl 016 603 Appl 133 607 Appl 362 965 Appl 764 875 Appl 121 468 Appl Appl 880 761 Appl Appl 437 063 Appl 702 228 Appl 970 267 Appl 180 210 Appl Appl 715 575 Appl 783 188 Appl 885 533 S Appl Appl Appl Appl Appl Appl Appl Appl Appl Appl Appl No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No 10 306 759 filed Nov 26 2002 now U 11 305 668 filed Dec 16 2005 now U 11 529 203 filed Sep 27 2006 now U 12 104 950 filed Apr 17 2008 now U 12 843 254 filed Jul 26 2010 now U S 13 399 333 filed Feb 17 2012 11 490 322 filed Jul 20 2006 now U 13 016 345 filed Jan 28 2011 11 697 241 filed Apr 5 2007 now U S 12 250 914 filed Oct 14 2008 now U 12 762 811 filed Apr 19 2010 now U 13 169 413 filed Jun 27 2011 now U 13 438 500 filed Apr 3 2012 12 129 447 filed May 29 2008 now U 12 129 402 filed May 29 2008 now U 12 861 445 filed Aug 23 2010 now U 13 021 951 filed Feb 7 2011 13 253 596 filed Oct 5 2011 13 201 182 filed Aug 11 2011 13 201 185 filed Aug 11 2011 13 201 281 filed Aug 12 2011 13 208 686 filed Aug 12 2011 13 208 706 filed Aug 12 2
9. TIME 5 FIG 6 VOLTAGE 5 S AFA DELAY 100 LIGHT gp OUTPUT c MAX U S Patent Dec 4 2012 Sheet 9 of 13 US 8 326 136 B1 812 808 816 02 ix TIME 4 2 044 20V REF TIME 940 0 5V REF 832 TIME 804 800 FIG 8 U S Patent Dec 4 2012 Sheet 10 of 13 US 8 326 136 B1 905 PE START NON REMOTE DEV ICE CONTROL OPERATE CAMERA BODY IN MODE DETECT ACTUATION PATTERN RS YES GENERATR AND TRANSMIT FIRST POWER n STATE CHANGE SIGNAL oor Kwan wane i OPERATE CAMERA BODY IN _ CHANGE CAMERA BODY NON REMOTH DEVICE CONTROL TO CONTROL MODE u dese vede AS prie ande td on se TENDRE cutee ew SS ee ae Y 925 L2 950 M i jo 7 DET Ww ves GENERATEAND Y TRANSMITPOWER dU 1 CONDITION 7 po lem 1 Di 1 EA PQ lt E Cada nne coe Re 945 NE f 7 N NO E e ACTUATION Seam ei PATTERN M 930 955 502 i P CHANGE CAMERA BODY GENERATE AND TRANSMIT e BACK TO NON REMOTE ie SECOND POWER STATE DEVICE CONTROL MODE CHANGE SIGNAL FIG 9 i 3 i U S Patent Dec 4 2012 Sheet 11 of 13 US 8 326 136 B1 77 Alt Device Extent 1064 1 Device Receiving Extent 1064 Meme 104801 Me MUN Alt Device
10. camera body control functionality 19 A method according to claim 18 wherein the controlled device is a lighting device and said generating of the plurality of power adjustment signals includes generating a first illu mination output adjustment signal 20 A method according to claim 18 wherein the controlled device includes a motor and said generating ofthe plurality of power adjustment signals includes generating a first motor speed signal 21 A method according to claim 18 wherein said detecting of the first preset pattern includes detecting a first sequential actuation of a particular camera body control on the camera body 22 A method according to claim 21 wherein said detecting of the first sequential actuation includes detecting a sequen tial partial pressing of a shutter release control 23 A method according to claim 21 wherein said detecting of the second preset pattern includes detecting a second sequential actuation of a particular camera body control on the camera body 24 A method according to claim 23 wherein said detecting of the first sequential actuation includes detecting a First sequential partial pressing of a shutter release control and said detecting of the second sequential actuation includes detecting a second sequential partial pressing of the shutter release button 25 A machine readable hardware storage medium con taining machine executable instructions for performing a method of communicating wit
11. controller 216 is configured to cause a first illumination output change in modeling lighting device 212 here from off to on In this example the photog rapher wants modeling lighting device 212 to be on when the backlighting of camera body 204 is on However there may be other situations when the photographer might want mod eling lighting device 212 to be off when backlighting of camera body 204 is on These differing options are described in more detail below Then when the user activates backlight control button 236 again to toggle the camera body backlight ing off controller 216 is configured to cause a second illumi nation output change in modeling lighting device 212 here from on to off Further details of this control scheme are provided below In the current embodiment controller 216 is not though it could be part of a hotshoe mountable flash device that is fully compatible with camera body 204 i e is able to use any signaling camera body 204 makes available via hotshoe 220 although such a flash device not shown or other flash or non flash device may indeed be mounted on the controller via an auxiliary hotshoe 280 that has the same signals avail able as the signals available at hotshoe 220 Nonetheless in this example controller 216 is configured to utilize some of the same information that camera body 204 normally pro vides to a compatible flash device via hotshoe 220 Often however conventional camera bodies
12. device such as a lighting device a special effects device and 396 56 58 166 175 201 280 299 301 303 an in scene device in a photographic image acquisition set 348 333 13 ting using a camera body The control system is configured to See application file for complete search history detect a preset pattern of actuation of one or more camera body controls by a user In response to detecting of the preset eferences Cite pattern the control system either communicates a power state 56 Cited h 1 ith i U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 3 039 375 A 6 1962 Umbach 3 185 056 A 5 1965 Gold et al 3 205 803 A 9 1965 Burgarella et al 3 259 042 A 7 1966 Kagan RE26 627 E 7 1969 Burgarella et al 3 659 509 A 5 1972 Burgarella 3 728 947 A 4 1973 Harnden et al 3 782 258 A 1 1974 Boekkooi et al DETECT A PRESET PATTERN OF ACTUATION BY A USER OF ONE OR 100 aA MORE CAMERA BODY CONTROLS 105 GENERATE A POWER STATE CHANGE SIGNAL IN RESPONSE TO DETECTION 110 OF THE PRESET PATTERN COMMUNICATE THE POWER STATE CHANGE SIGNAL TO THE AT LEAST ONE DEVICE SO THAT THE AT LEAST ONE DEVICE OPERATES AT A FIRST POWER STATE BODY CONTROLS _ GENERATE A POWER STATE CHANGB SIGNAL IN RESPONSE TO DETECTION 123 OF THE PRESET PATTERN COMMUNICATE THE POWER _ STATE CHANGE SIGNAL TO THE AT 136 LEAST ONE DEVICE SO THAT THE AT LEAST ONE DEVICE OPERATES AT A SECOND POWER STATE change signal to the controlled device or caus
13. for image acquisition In addition some photographic settings such as very low light scenes photographed in a photography studio or other location having controllable ambient lighting require ambi ent lighting to be lowered or turned off during image acqui sition so that the ambient light does not interfere with image acquisition Often this ambient lighting needs to remain on except for short periods at and around the time of image acquisition because the ambient lighting is necessary for the photographer and any assistants to see while moving around the studio and or readying the scene for image acquisition 20 40 45 50 65 2 Usually a photographer or photographer s assistant manually controls the pertinent ambient lighting device s using con ventional dedicated controls SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE Inoneimplementation the present disclosure is directed to a method of communicating with a controlled device using a camera body The method includes detecting a first preset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one first camera body control on the camera body generating a first power state change signal in response to the detecting of the first preset pattern of actuation communicating the first power state change signal so as to cause the controlled device to operate ata first power state after communicating the first power state change signal detecting a second preset pattern of actuation by a user of a
14. 1 indicating on and a low value 0 indicating off Byte 1220B or other byte of any one of the data bursts can also include a status bit indicating that an AF assist request has been made The same is true for many other camera body signals such as a red eye reduction signal among others When the camera body signals being utilized for remote device control func tionality the corresponding controller for example the digi tal counterpart to controller 216 of FIG 2 can be configured to monitor communications signal 1200 for the bit s of inter ests for example using digital signal monitoring techniques known in the art Once the controller detects the desired signal s it can implement the desired remote device control functionality for example any one or more of the function alities described herein Following is a specific example of method 900 that can be useful especially in a studio setting for turning on and off one or more modeling lighting devices and or other devices used during a photo shoot In this example the controller not shown but which can be virtually identical to controller 216 of FIG 2 except that it is responsive to camera body event information carried on a digital status communications signal 1200 of FIG 12 is configured to detect a camera body mode event that is available on the hotshoe of the camera body for example hotshoe 220 of camera body 204 of FIG 2 and determine when a user has switched back a
15. 2007 Terminal Disclaimer now S Pat No 7 362 965 S Appl No 11 529 203 Dec 14 2007 Notice of Allowance now S Pat No 7 362 965 S Appl No 12 104 950 Dec 31 2009 Office Action now U S at No 7 764 875 S Appl No 12 104 950 Feb 1 2010 Response to Office Action ow U S Pat No 7 764 875 S Appl 12 104 950 Mar 23 2010 Notice of Allowance now S Pat No 7 764 875 S Appl No 12 843 254 Jul 27 2010 Preliminary Remarks now S Pat No 8 121 468 S Appl No 12 843 254 Aug 25 2011 Office Action now U S at No 8 121 468 5 Appl 12 843 254 Aug 25 2011 Response to Office ction now U S Pat No 8 121 468 5 Appl No 12 843 254 Aug 25 2011 Terminal Disclaimer now S Pat No 8 121 468 S Appl No 12 843 254 Nov 28 2011 Notice of Allowance now S Pat No 8 121 468 5 Appl 13 399 333 Jun 14 2012 Office Action S Appl No 11 488 491 Oct 16 2007 Office Action S Appl No 11 490 322 Apr 20 2010 Office Action now U S at No 7 880 761 SS Appl No 11 490 322 Jul 12 2010 Response to Office Action ow U S Pat No 7 880 761 S Appl No 11 490 322 Sep 15 2010 Notice of Allowance now S Pat No 7 880 761 S Appl No 11 697 241 Nov 8 2007 Office Action now U S at No 7 437 063 5 Appl No 11 697 241 10 2008 Response to Office ction now U S Pat No 7 437 063 SS Appl No 11 697 241
16. Al 6 2010 King S 500 0A 31991 2010 0202767 Al 8 2010 Shirakawa 2350375 AS v 1101004 CIE 2010 0209089 Al 8 2010 King 5384611 A 1 1995 Tsuji et al 20110001665 UL King 6 1995 Weinberg 2011 0119409 Al 5 2011 King ees 2011 0123185 Al 5 2011 Clark 5 436 531 7 1995 Weinberg 2011 0128390 Al 6 2011 Clark oo 2011 0129207 Al 6 2011 King etal 5 692 223 A 11 1997 Ichikawa et al Ai UD 5 708 833 A 1 1998 Kinney et al LUE 2012 0099847 Al 4 2012 Clark 3734934 31998 Horihietal 5 2012012361 Al 52012 Cla 5 754 898 A 5 1998 Nakano 2012 0148221 Al 6 2012 Clark 6 006 039 A 12 1999 Steinberg et al FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 6 029 013 A 2 2000 Larkin et al 6 052 539 A 4 2000 Latorre CN 2010 10600736 4 2 2012 6 088 542 A 7 2000 Yanai et al EP 0984320 Al 3 2000 6 127 940 A 10 2000 Weinberg EP 07760263 9 1 2011 6 167 199 12 2000 Fukui EP 07760263 9 7 2011 6 278 481 B1 8 2001 Schmidt EP 8756458 9 7 2011 6 351 610 2 2002 Numako et al EP 11177995 5 12 2011 6 353 711 3 2002 Numako et al EP 11177997 1 12 2011 6 366 737 4 2002 Numako et al EP 11177995 5 7 2012 6 400 907 BL 6 2002 Izukawa JP 56 143422 11 1981 6 404 987 1 6 2002 Fukui 396 56 JP 59 064821 4 1984 6 430 369 B2 8 2002 Lee et al JP 59 170822 9 1984 6 453 154 B1 9 2002 Haber et al JP 63 018874 1 1988 6 524 237 2 2003 McGowan JP 05 093948 4 1993 6 618 557 B1 9 2003 Ziemkowsk
17. N 1020 1 N 1024 1 N shown in FIG 10 is shown as having a corresponding alternative device extent 1060 1 N 1064 1 N 1068 1 1072 1 N to indicate that the corre sponding receiving means 1044 1 N 1048 1 N 1052 1 N 1056 1 N can be located essentially internally relative to that controlled device rather than externally sentially being used to indicate that one or more parts of the receiving means such as antenna optical sensor etc may be located externally For example any one of receiving means 1044 1 N 1048 1 N 1052 1 N 1056 1 N may be built into the corresponding controlled device 1012 1 1016 1 N 1020 1 N 1024 1 N or may be provided as an aftermarket solution Similarly camera body 1008 is shown as having differing alternative extents 1076 1080 to show that remote device controller 1028 and various parts thereof can be located either internally or externally relative to the camera body depend ing on the particular design at issue For example when camera body 1008 excludes the entirety of remote device controller 1028 the controller may be a hotshoe mountable device such as shown with controller 216 of FIGS 2 and 3 However in alternative embodiments one or both of control ling means 1032 and transmitting means 1036 may be included within camera body 1008 In an example of the former controlling means 1032 may be implemented in the onboard micro
18. and promptly proceed to implementing the second preset pattern which is detected at step 180 In this example steps 165 170 175 are not performed It is also noted that it is possible to integrate other steps within method 150 For example method 100 of FIG 1 and method 150 of FIG 1B can be integrated with one another so that not only does the detection of the first and second preset patterns of camera body control actuation FIG 1B steps 155 180 result in the mode of the camera body being changed but such detection also causes the generation corresponding respective power state change signals see steps 110 125 of FIG 1A Further details of this particular example are described below for example in connection with FIG 9 FIG 2 illustrates an exemplary photographic system 200 that is configured to carry out the steps of method 100 of FIG 1A and or method 150 of FIG 1B Referring to FIG 2 and also to FIG 1A photographic system 200 includes a camera body 204 and two continuous type modeling lighting appa ratuses namely a multifunction lighting system 208 which includes a continuous modeling light and a dedicated mod eling lighting device 212 In this example each modeling lighting apparatus 208 212 is controllable from camera body 204 via a controller 216 mounted to a hotshoe 220 on the camera body As described below in detail controller 216 is configured to control the modeling lighting functionality of multifunc
19. as analog voltage signals as opposed to digital data packet signals That said as men tioned above those skilled in the art could readily implement the same sort of control scheme in a digital instruction sig naling environment that uses digital packet signal analogs to the analog voltage signals In timing diagrams 600 700 the settings for Wake mode 420 are first power change level 50 second power change level 15 delay 2 sec onds and the settings for AF Assist mode 424 are first power change level 80 second power change level 60 delay 5 seconds These settings are shown on screen 416 of FIG 4 Referring to FIGS 2 4 and 6 timing diagram 600 of FIG 6 is an example in which only AF Assist mode 424 is enabled Inthis example camera body 204 FIG 2 has generated first and second AFA signals 604 608 approximately 2 seconds apart from one another Camera body 204 may generate each signal 604 608 in any number of ways such as in an automatic mode in response to a user performing a half press on shutter release button 224 of the camera body or in response to the user pressing a dedicated button 228 of the camera body When wireless controller 216 first detects the leading edge 604A of first AFA signal 604 in this example it generates and transmits a modeling light instruc tion set containing the first power change level the second power change level and the delay values set for example via GUI 412 of FIG
20. at step 915 method 900 simply loops back to step 910 and continues with non remote device control operation However if the remote device controller has detected a preset user control pattern at step 915 and transmitted the first power state change signal at step 920 method 900 may in one embodiment proceed to step 925 wherein camera body 204 resumes its normal non re mote device control operation If method 900 proceeds to step 925 it may then proceed to step 930 at which the remote device controller monitors the camera body control signal lines to determine whether another preset user control actua tion pattern has occurred In this example the pattern is another rapid triple partial pressing of shutter release button 22A but in other embodiments the pattern at issue may be different from the pattern at step 915 If the remote device controller does not detect the pattern at issue at step 930 method 900 loops back to step 925 and camera body 204 continues in normal non remote device control operation while the remote device s changed in response to step 920 remain so changed However if the remote device controller detects the preset actuation pattern at step 930 method 900 proceeds to step 935 at which the controller generates and transmits a second power state change signal a second IOC signal in the context of modeling lighting control along with any change to power level setting In one example wherein the first po
21. camera body control back to the camera body control functionality 32 A method according to claim 31 further comprising while the third camera body control has the power adjustment control functionality detecting user actuation of the third camera body control generating a power adjustment signal in response to said detecting of user actuation of the third camera body control and communicating the power adjustment signal so as to cause the controlled device to operate in accordance with the power adjustment signal 33 A method according to claim 32 wherein said detecting ofthe user actuation ofthe third camera body control includes detecting a rotating of a rotary control 34 A method according to claim 33 further including generating a plurality of power adjustment signals in sub stantial synchronicity with the rotating of a rotary con trol and wireless transmitting the plurality of power adjustment signals in substantial synchronicity with the rotating of the rotary control so as to cause the controlled device to continually change power states 35 A method according to claim 32 wherein the controlled device is a lighting device and said generating of the power adjustment signal includes generating a first illumination out put adjustment signal 36 A method according to claim 32 wherein the controlled device includes a motor and said generating of the power adjustment signal includes generating a first motor spee
22. change its modeling light output level from the current level here the 6096 level from the second power change of AF Assist mode 424 to the second power change level here 1596 As described above if controller 216 is so enabled after this last transmission it may enter a sleep mode to save power FIG 8 illustrates example circuitry 804 that may be used in for example camera body interface 308 FIG 3 of con troller 216 FIGS 2 and 3 to convert raw camera body wake and AFA signals 808 812 available in this example at hotshoe 220 of camera body 204 to signals suitable for use in microprocessor 300 of the controller In the context of example circuitry 804 camera body wake and AFA signals 808 812 are of the same analog character as the like signals 604 608 704 712 716 of FIGS 6 and 7 above More precisely in this example wake signal 808 is characterized by a rise in voltage from a low voltage here OV to a midlevel voltage here 1V and autofocus signal 812 is characterized by arise in voltage from the midlevel voltage to a high voltage here 3 5V Circuitry 804 includes an input 816 that carries an input voltage signal 820 that contains wake and AFA signals 808 812 when they occur Input 816 is electrically coupled to inputs of corresponding respective first and second compara tors 824 828 that each compare input voltage signal 820 to a particular reference voltage on a corresponding reference voltage line
23. changes omis sions and additions may be made to that which is specifically disclosed herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention What is claimed is 1 A method of communicating with a controlled device using a camera body comprising US 8 326 136 B1 31 detecting a first preset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one first camera body control on the camera body in response to said detecting of the first preset pattern of actuation changing the camera body functionality of a third camera body control to a power adjustment func tionality for controlling the controlled device wherein the third camera body control of the camera body is provided for camera body control functionality detecting user actuation of the third camera body control while the third camera body control has the power adjustment control functionality said detecting of the user actuation ofthe third camera body control including detecting a rotating of a rotary control generating a plurality of power adjustment signals in sub stantial synchronicity with the rotating of the rotary control wirelessly transmitting the plurality of power adjustment signals in substantial synchronicity with the rotating of the rotary control so as to cause the controlled device to continually change power states in accordance with the power adjustment signal after wirelessly transmitting the plurality of power adjust ment signals d
24. device is a wirelessly remote modeling lighting device 8 A method according to claim 6 wherein the lighting device is an in scene lighting device 9 A method according to claim 6 wherein the lighting device is an ambient lighting device 10 A method according to claim 1 wherein the controlled device includes a motor and said generating of a plurality of power adjustment signals includes generating a first motor speed change signal 11 machine readable hardware storage medium con taining machine executable instructions for performing a method of communicating with a controlled device using a camera body said machine executable instructions compris ing 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 32 a first set of machine executable instructions for imple menting detection ofa first preset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one first camera body control on the camera body a second set of machine executable instruction for in response to said detecting of the first preset pattern of actuation changing the camera body functionality of a third camera body control to a power adjustment func tionality for controlling the controlled device wherein the third camera body control of the camera body is provided for camera body control functionality a third set of machine executable instructions for detecting user actuation ofthe third camera body control while the third camera body control has the power a
25. disclosure a communication method containing broad con cepts disclosed herein such as method 100 is useful for a number of purposes including allowing a photographer to use modeling lighting to check for unwanted and or wanted lighting effects and levels that will appear in images captured using flash photography allowing a photographer to control operation of remote special effects allowing a photographer to control ambient and in scene lighting allowing a photog rapher to control remotely controllable devices appearing in a photographic scene and any combination thereof all without having to remove an eye from the camera s viewfinder or live view display Method 100 typically begins at step 105 by detecting whether or not a user has actuated one or more camera body controls of a camera body in a preset pattern setup to corre spond to the user s desire to control one or more controllable devices located remote from the camera body As used herein and in the appended claims the term pattern is intended to cover multiple actuations of one or more camera body con trols such as three rapid partial presses of a shutter release button as well as the simultaneous and or sequential actua tion of two or more controls such as actuating a backlighting control button while holding down a menu on off switch among many other possibilities In addition it is noted that as used herein and in the appended claims the term camera body co
26. generating a motor speed change signal 18 A method of communicating with a controlled device using a camera body comprising detecting a first preset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one first camera body control on the camera body in response to said detecting of the first preset pattern of actuation changing the camera body functionality of a third camera body control of the camera body to a power adjustment functionality for controlling the controlled device detecting user actuation of the third camera body control while the third camera body control has the power adjustment control functionality said detecting user actuation of the third camera body control including detecting a rotating of a rotary control generating a plurality of power adjustment signals in sub stantial synchronicity with the rotating of the rotary control wirelessly transmitting the plurality of power adjustment signals in substantial synchronicity with the rotating of the rotary control so as to cause the controlled device to continually change power states after said changing of the camera body functionality to the power adjustment functionality detecting a second pre set pattern of actuation by a user of at least one second camera body control on the camera body and in response to said detecting of the second preset pattern of actuation changing the power adjustment control func tionality of the third camera body control back to the
27. is noted that in alternative embodiments each of first and second sub modes 448A B may be provided with power level fields similar to the power level fields of Wake and AF Assist modes 420 424 However in this example modeling lighting device 212 FIG 2 is either switched on or off so no power levels need to be set Rather the on and off signaling from controller 216 to modeling lighting device 212 will be handled properly depending on which sub mode 448A B 15 selected That is if first sub mode 4484 is selected the soft ware application running on laptop computer 404 configures controller 216 to send an on signal to wireless communica tions device 260 FIG 2 when a user turns on the backlight ing of camera body 204 and to send an off signal to that wireless communications device when the user turns off the camera body backlighting The opposite is true of second sub mode 448B In another alternative in which the power state change is binary i e off on off or on off on GUI 412 may be provided with two power level fields not shown corresponding to the two changes These fields may be iden 0 5 40 45 65 16 tical to fields 436 440 of respectively Wake mode 420 and AF Assist mode 424 Then if a user wants off on off functionality the user would input 10096 power for the first power level change corresponding to the off on transition and 096 power for the second power level change corre
28. robust instruction set controller 216 performs step 535 by sending the second change level along with the delay value and first change level that the controller sends at step 525 Generator pack 256 then implements the change of the modeling light of multifunction lighting system 208 to the second change level after the inter nal timer of the generator pack times out on the set delay value If in another implementation controller 216 provides the timer functionality the controller could send a second IOC signal containing the second change level in response to the timer timing out Still further options are possible depending on the particular capabilities ofthe modeling light US 8 326 136 17 ing devices at issue It is noted that the flow diagram for method 500 does not capture other steps that can be imple mented to provide various other operating features that may be needed to provide desired operation For example once controller 216 detects a camera body AFA signal at step 520 it may be desirable to disable Wake mode 420 and or back light B L mode 428 to prevent the controller from changing the modeling lighting to an illumination output level unsuit able for assisting autofocusing After controller 216 performs step 535 example method 500 proceeds to step 515 at which the controller determines or knows whether or not Wake mode 420 is enabled If Wake mode 420 is not enabled method 500 proceeds to step 540 at which
29. signal within the camera body that can cause the camera body to initiate a variety of functionality such as wakeup autofocusing through the lens metering etc as will be understood by those skilled in the art Menu off on switch 284 in this example is a button type switch that results in a menu on off signal within camera body 204 The scroll wheel portion of click wheel 288 is a control commonly used on contemporary digital single lens reflex cameras often in combination with another control that allows a photographer to efficiently scroll through a list of camera body settings As one example a scroll wheel is sometimes used in flash com pensation mode to allow a photographer to scroll among flash compensation values Often as here though not always a scroll wheel is incorporated into a button type switch that allows a photographer to make a selection by pressing on the control wheel When a user actuates the scroll wheel of click wheel 288 a scroll wheel signal is generated internally to camera body 204 Similarly when a user actuates the selector button of click wheel 288 the selector button signal is gen erated internally to camera body 204 The microprocessor not shown of camera body 204 uses these signals to control the appropriate camera body functionality Method 900 however can implement any one or more of these and or other camera body signals to allow a user to control operation of modeling lighting Method 900 provid
30. sponding to the on off transition Of course other alterna tives are possible FIGS 5 illustrate a flow diagram illustrating one pos sible method 500 of controlling controller 216 so as to pro vide the controller with the functionality illustrated via GUI 412 of FIG 4 As those skilled in the art will readily appre ciate method 500 can be implemented in software in analog circuitry and in any combination thereof At step 505 method 500 begins Depending on the power state of controller 216 step 505 may begin when the controller is first powered on and if the controller has wake and sleep states to control power consumption every time the controller is woken up At step 510 the controller determines or already knows whether or not AF Assist AFA mode 424 is enabled As discussed above relative to GUI 412 FIG 4 AF Assist mode 424 may be enabled during an appropriate setup procedure for example by a user checking checkbox 432B in the GUI with controller 216 in communication with laptop 404 If AF Assist mode 424 is not enabled method 500 continues to step 515 wherein controller 216 checks to determine whether Wake mode 420 has been enabled for example in a manner similar to AF Assist mode 424 However if at step 510 controller 216 determines or knows that AF Assist mode 424 is enabled then method 500 proceeds to step 520 at which the controller determines whether or not it has detected an AFA signal generated by came
31. step 935 and then to step 955 At step 935 the remote device controller generates and transmits a second power state change signal that for example turns one or more controlled devices off At step 955 the remote device controller changes the camera body from the remote device control mode back to the non remote device control mode Immediately following step 955 for example the scroll wheel of click wheel 288 resumes the functionality it had prior to camera body 204 entering con trolled device control mode To briefly illustrate the usefulness of the full functionality of method 900 assume modeling lighting is desired to be on only for a few seconds so as to allow a photographer to check for desired and undesired effects that an image acquisition strobe flash will have in a captured image Assume further that the photographer is standing at a camera which is enabled to perform the steps of method 900 such as with an internal modeling lighting controller and wireless transmitter the modeling lighting is presently turned off and the photogra pher does not know what the illumination output level of the modeling lighting will be when it is turned on Instead of leaving the camera to check the illumination output setting s 0 5 25 40 45 50 55 65 26 of the modeling lighting and turn the modeling lighting on while the photographer is still standing at the camera and even while looking through the camer
32. the camera body whereas others do not As will be seen below camera body 204 of FIG 2 is of the type that makes camera body backlight signaling available at hotshoe 220 Camera body 204 is also configured like many conventional camera bodies to make camera body wake and sleep and autofocus assist signals available at hotshoe 220 Further details of wake and B L modes of controller are described below in greater detail after a description of multifunction lighting system 208 and modeling lighting device 212 In this example multifunction lighting system 208 includes a dual function lighting head 244 that provides both image acquisition strobe light from a flash source 248 such as a xenon flash tube and continuous light from a continuous light source 252 such as a tungsten bulb Lighting head 244 is powered by a suitable generator pack 256 A similar mul tifunctional lighting system is available from Profoto Stock holm Sweden among other photographic lighting manufac turers Generator pack 256 includes a built in wireless communications device 260 and an onboard microprocessor not shown responsive to a relatively robust set of user settable lighting control parameters including modeling lighting control parameters Parameters for operating multi function lighting system 208 that a user is able to set control using wireless communications device 260 include illumina tion output level settings In this example wireless com
33. the signal s generated by controlling means 1032 via wireless communications links 1040 to corresponding respective ones of controlled devices 1012 1 N 1016 1 N 1020 1 N 1024 1 N via corresponding respective receiving means 1044 1 N 1048 1 N 1052 1 N 1056 1 N Transmitting and receiving means 1036 1044 1 N 1048 1 N 1052 1 N 1056 1 N can utilize any suitable communications mode such as wireless RF communications in which case wireless communications links 1040 will be wireless RF links wireless optical infrared IR visible communica tions in which case wireless communications links 1040 will be wireless optical links etc In the case of wireless RF communications transmitting means 1036 may be an RF transmitter or RF transceiver and each receiving means 1044 1 N 1048 1 N 1052 1 N 1056 1 N may be an RF receiver or RF transceiver In the case of wireless optical communications transmitting means 1036 may be for example an IR transmitter transceiver or a visible light transmitter e g flash lighting strobe transceiver and each corresponding receiving means 1044 1 N 1048 1 N 1052 1 N 1056 1 N may bean IR receiver transceiver or visible light receiver transceiver Those skilled in the art will readily understand how to implement the desired com munications mode as needed to suit a particular design Each controlled device 1012 1 N 1016 1
34. to claim 12 wherein said first set of machine executable instructions includes machine executable instructions for implementing detection of a sequential partial pressing of a shutter release control 14 A machine readable hardware storage medium accord ing to claim 12 wherein said sixth set of machine executable instructions includes machine executable instructions for implementing detection of a second sequential actuation of a particular camera body control on the camera body 15 A machine readable hardware storage medium accord ing to claim 14 wherein said first set of machine executable instructions includes machine executable instructions for implementing detection of a first sequential partial pressing of a shutter release control and said sixth set of machine executable instructions includes machine executable instruc tions for implementing detection of a second sequential par tial pressing of the shutter release button 16 A machine readable hardware storage medium accord ing to claim 11 wherein the controlled device 1s a lighting device and said fourth set of machine executable instructions includes machine executable instructions for generating an illumination output change signal 17 A machine readable hardware storage medium accord ing to claim 11 wherein the controlled device includes a US 8 326 136 B1 33 motor and said fourth set of machine executable instructions includes machine executable instructions for
35. 011 13 401 175 filed Feb 21 2012 12 705 052 filed Feb 12 2010 12 705 096 filed Feb 12 2010 12 705 164 filed Feb 12 2010 cited by examiner S S S S S S S S S Pat Pat Pat No Pat No Pat No Pat No Pat No No Pat No Pat No Pat No No Pat No Pat No Pat No U S Patent Dec 4 2012 Sheet 1 of 13 US 8 326 136 B1 AJ t AAA SA EWA DETECT A PRESET PATTERN OF ACTUATION BY A USER OF ONE OR 106 Z LMORE CAMERA BODY CONTROLS 105 d GENERATE A POWER STATE CHANGE 7 SIGNAL IN RESPONSE TO DETECTION 110 OF THE PRESET PATTERN cene AASA Sess e COMMUNICATE THE POWER STATE CHANGE SIGNAL TO THE AT LEAST ONE DEVICE SO THAT THE AT LBAST ONE DEVICE OPERATES A FIRST POWER STATE ___ DETECT A PRESET PATTERN OF ACTUATION BY A USER OF ONE OR MORE CAMERA BODY CONTROLS AAR NAA D TVA INA MASS NASA AA PARRA anam no asse env AA AA APART UR NAT vau Senter coos eec GENERATE A POWER STATE CHANGE SIGNAL IN RESPONSE TO DETECTION OF THE PRESET PATTERN e AA A S ARA ARI AAA AN AS ttv COMMUNICATE THE POWER STATR CHANGE SIGNAL TO THE AT LEAST ONE DEVICE SO THAT THE AT LEAST ONE DEVICE OPERATES ATASECONDPOWERSTATB 130 7 FIG 1A U S Patent Dec 4 2012 Sheet 2 of 13 US 8 326 136 B1 DETECT A PRESET PATTERN OF _ ACTU
36. 3 http www dpreview com reviews NikonD2H last viewed on Mar 18 2008 Phil Askey Nikon D2Hs Preview 1 Introduction Digital Photogra phy Review includes Review of WT 2 Transmitter Feb 2005 http www dpreview com articles nikond2hs last viewed Mar 14 2008 PocketWizard MuItiMAX Transceiver New Trigger Control Soft ware Features by Design pp to 6 United States PocketWizard MultiMAX Transceiver Owner s Manual by Design May 2001 pp 1 55 and Relay Mode on p 40 United States Quantum FreeWire Transceiver Jul 17 2005 pp 1 to 7 http web archive org web 20050717015832 http www qtm com wireless freewire html last viewed at Internet Archive on Apr 25 2008 Quantum FreeWire Transceiver Nov 15 2004 pp 1 to 7 http web archive org web 20041115093657 http www qtm com wireless freewire html last viewed at Internet Archive on Apr 25 2008 Quantum FreeWire Transceiver Oct 7 2001 pp 1 to 6 http web archive org web 20011007 140624 http www qtm com wireless freewire html last viewed at Internet Archive on Apr 25 2008 Rob Galbraith Casting Light on the PocketWizard and FlexTT5 Parts 1 to 5 Feb 16 2009 http www robgalbraith com bins multi page asp cid 7 9884 9903 last viewed on Jul 12 2012 Robert Hanashiro Equipment Corner News amp Notes for all Those Gear Heads Nov 26 2001 pp 1 to 3 http www sportsshooter com news story html 1d 59
37. 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 level and camera body autofocus assist signal is identified by a third voltage change here from the intermediate level to a high level This example is discussed further below in con nection with FIGS 6 and 7 Further in this example the camera body backlight control signal appears on a second pin different from the first pin and is identified by an increase in voltage from a low voltage to a higher voltage that is held high while the backlighting is to be on It is noted that some current camera bodies such as EOS series SLRs DSLRs available from Canon Inc Tokyo Japan do not provide backlight signals externally through a hotshoe whereas other current camera bodies such as SLRs DLSRs available from Nikon Corporation Tokyo Japan provide backlight on offinforma tion viaa status bit in a digital communications bit cluster for example to allow the camera body backlighting control sig nal to control backlighting on a flash unit mounted to the hotshoe Other camera bodies can have different backlighting signaling arrangements such as the one illustrated in FIGS 6 and 7 Another characteristic of this example is that backlight control mode is of a non delay type That is the camera body backlighting stays on until a user turns it off here using backlighting control button 236 Consequently when a user activates camera body backlight control button 236 to turn camera body backlighting on
38. 4 Once generator pack 256 receives this instruction set as represented by modeling light illumina tion output curve 612 it changes the output level of the mod eling light to the first power change level here 8096 from whatever level the modeling light was set to prior to receiving the instruction set here 0 and starts a delay timer not shown internal to the modeling light using the preset delay value here 5 seconds If controller 216 does not detect another AFA signal in about 5 seconds from detecting first AFA signal 604 i e in about the time of the delay value the built in timer of wireless communications device 260 will time out and this wireless device will initiate via generator pack 256 the second power level change of the modeling light to the preset level here _ 0 5 20 30 35 40 45 20 60 However in the case illustrated in FIG 6 within about 2 seconds of detecting first AFA signal 604 controller 216 detects second AFA signal 608 which in this example causes the controller to send the same instruction set it sent in response to the detection of the first AFA signal When wire less communications device 260 receives this second instruc tion set it initiates the first power level change which is not actually a change since the first power change level had already been set in response to first AFA signal 604 of the modeling light and re sets its internal timer to the preset
39. 4 last viewed on Sep 17 2002 Strobist Blog PocketWizard FIexTT5 and MiniTT1 Full Review Feb 16 to 18 2009 blog comments pp 1 to 40 http strobist blogspot com 2009 02 pocketwizard flextt5 and minitt 1 full html last viewed on Feb 18 2009 Strobist Blog PocketWizard FIexTT5 and MiniTT1 Full Review Feb 16 2009 pp 1 to 11 http strobist blogspot com 2009 02 pocketwizard flextt5 and minitt1 full html last viewed on Feb 18 2009 U S Appl No 10 306 759 Aug 29 2003 Office Action now U S Pat No 7 016 603 U S Appl No 10 306 759 Dec 18 2003 Response to Office Action now U S Pat No 7 016 603 U S Appl No 10 306 759 Dec 24 2003 Examiner Interview Sum mary now U S Pat No 7 016 603 U S Appl No 10 306 759 Mar 27 2004 Final Office Action now USS Pat No 7 016 603 U S Appl No 10 306 759 Apr 15 2004 Examiner Interview Sum mary now U S Pat No 7 016 603 S Appl No 10 306 759 Apr 20 2004 Response to Final Office ction now U S Pat No 7 016 603 S Appl No 10 306 759 Aug 24 2004 Office Action now U S at No 7 016 603 S Appl No 10 306 759 Feb 18 2005 Request for Continued xamination now U S Pat No 7 016 603 S Appl No 10 306 759 Mar 29 2005 Office Action now U S Pat No 7 016 603 Cpa Ghd 5 Appl No 10 306 759 Apr 14 2005 Response to Office Action ow U S Pat No 7 016 603 S Appl No 10 306
40. 50 500 and 99 of FIGS 1A B 5A B and 9 respectively can be used to control virtually any type of controllable device FIG 10 generally illustrates this concept FIG 10 illustrates dia grammatically a flexible system 1000 that allows a photog rapher to control any one or more of a myriad of devices of any one or more types using one or more camera body con trols 1004 located on a camera body 1008 In this example devices that are controllable include modeling lighting devices 1012 1012 1 N which may be similar to model ing lighting apparatuses 208 212 of FIG 2 special effects devices 1016 1016 1 N such as a fan a snow shaker a misting device a fogger a rain maker a sprayer etc non modeling continuous lighting devices 1020 1020 1 N such as ambient lighting e g general studio room lighting in scene lighting e g electric lamps etc and in scene non lighting devices 1024 1024 1 N such as a motor ized train set magnetic actuator etc As those skilled in the art will appreciate the general steps illustrated methods 100 150 of FIGS 1A B respectively can be used to control any one or more ofcontrolled devices 1012 1016 1020 1024 singly or in various combinations with one another as described in more detail below To enable the remote control functionality system 1000 includes a remote device controller 1028 that issues one or more appropriate power state change signals to one or m
41. 55 essentially causes the modeling lighting of multifunction lighting system 208 to change almost instanta neously after the leading edge ofthe line voltage begins to rise toward the intermediate level In this example the sending of the first IOC signal at step 555 includes sending to wireless communications device 260 FIG 2 of generator pack 256 the first change level noted in field 440A of GUI 412 After controller 216 sends the first IOC signal at step 555 method 500 proceeds to step 540 so as to continue the looping If at step 550 controller 216 determines that the first IOC signal from step 555 was sent previously since the current camera body wake signal became present method 500 proceeds to step 540 and continues the continual looping If at step 545 controller 216 did not detect a wake signal then method 500 proceeds to step 560 at which the controller detects whether a camera body sleep signal has occurred Ifa camera sleep signal has not occurred method 500 proceeds to step 540 to continue the looping nature of the method In this example the user set delay value present in field 440C of GUI 412 FIG 4 is implemented relative to the camera body sleep signal Since wireless communication device 260 includes a built in timer when controller 216 detects a camera body sleep signal at step 560 it proceeds to step 565 in which it implements the set delay value from field 440C In this example controller 216 accomplishes step 565 by
42. 759 Jun 29 2005 Final Office Action now S Pat No 7 016 603 5 Appl No 10 306 759 Aug 25 2005 Response to Final Office ction now U S Pat No 7 016 603 5 Appl No 10 306 759 Sep 16 2005 Notice of Allowance now S Pat No 7 016 603 S Appl No 10 306 759 Oct 18 2005 312 Amendment now S Pat No 7 016 603 S Appl No 10 306 759 Dec 20 2005 Response to 312 Amend ent now U S Pat No 7 016 603 5 Appl No 10 306 759 Jan 4 2006 Response to 312 Amend ent now U S Pat No 7 016 603 S Appl No 10 306 759 Nov 18 2006 Certificate of Correction ow U S Pat No 7 016 603 S Appl No 11 305 668 Mar 8 2006 Office Action now U S at No 7 133 607 S Appl 11 305 668 Jun 8 2006 Response to Office Action ow U S Pat No 7 133 607 S Appl 11 305 668 Jun 13 2006 Supplemental Response to equest for Clarification by the Examiner now U S Pat No 133 607 S Appl 11 305 668 Jun 30 2006 Notice of Allowance now S Pat No 7 133 607 S Appl No 11 305 668 Mar 29 2007 Request for Correction of Letters Patent now U S Pat No 7 133 607 S Appl No 11 529 203 Aug 14 2007 Office Action now U S at No 7 362 965 S Appl 11 529 203 Oct 16 2007 Terminal Disclaimer now S Pat No 7 362 965 S Appl No 11 529 203 Oct 16 2007 Response to Office Action ow U S Pat No 7 362 965 S Appl No 11 529 203 Oct 25
43. 832 836 Here the reference voltage for first comparator 824 is 0 5V which allows the first comparator to output a wake signal present signal 840 when wake signal 808 is present on input 816 Similarly the reference voltage for second comparator 828 is 2V which allows the second comparator to output an AFA signal present signal 844 when AFA signal 812 is present on input 816 In this example wake signal present and AFA signal present signals 840 844 are provided as inputs to microprocessor 300 FIG 3 If the I O voltage regime of microprocessor 300 is OV to 3 3V then the wakeup signal present and AFA signal present sig nals 840 844 output from comparators 824 828 are either about OV or about 3 3V depending on whether corresponding wake and AFA signals 808 812 are present on input voltage signal 820 Of course those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that other circuitry may be used While the foregoing example is directed to an analog sig naling scheme those skilled in the art would readily be able to implement control concepts of the present disclosure in a digital signaling scheme where a camera body communicates various state and control information internally and or exter nally using digitally encoded information In addition it is noted that while the foregoing example is directed to a con 0 40 45 60 22 troller located externally relative to camera body as men tioned above a controller of th
44. ATION BY A USER OF ONE OR Pa _MORE CAMERA BODY CONTROLS 150 155 CHANGE THE FUNCTIONALITY OF ONE OR MORE CAMERA BODY CONTROLS FROM CAMERA BODY FUNCTIONALITY TO CONTROLLED DEVICE CONTROL FUNCTIONALITY T DETECT USER ACTUATION OF ONE OR MORE CAMERA BODY CONTROLS 165 HAVING CHANGED FUNCTIONALITY A NM GENERATE ONE OR MORE POWER ADJUST SIGNALS IN RESPONSE TO SUCH USBR ACTUATION COMMUNICATE THE POWER ADJUST SIGNAL S A CONTROLLED DEVICE 175 d DETECT A PRESET PATTERN OF d ACTUATION BY A USER OF ONE OR 189 MORE CAMERA BODY CONTROLS CHANGE THE FUNCTIONALITY OF ONE OR MORE CAMERA BODY CONTROLS FROM CONTROLLED DEVICE FUNCTIONALITY BACK TO CAMERA BODY FUNCTIONALITY 185 FIG 1B U S Patent Dec 4 2012 Sheet 3 of 13 US 8 326 136 B1 U S Patent Dec 4 2012 Sheet 4 of 13 US 8 326 136 B1 280 WIRELESS CONTROLLER 218 MICROPROCESSOR l MACHINE READABLE EXTERNAL COMM PORT 316 MEMORY 317 pe 320 CAMERA BODY emt TRANSMITTER INTERFACE 308 T 334 U S Patent Dec 4 2012 Sheet 5 of 13 US 8 326 136 B1 416 ol Mamtinance Channels Moles Hae UM um TENNIS ovii dafs te uicta Mic ree ire A Controlled Device Control Settings 420 Z 432A dvi Wake ist change level 65 2nd change levet 15 dnd M Delay seconds 4404
45. At step 130 the first power state change signal is communi cated to the at least one controlled device so as to cause device s to change to a second power state corresponding to the power state change signal generated at step 125 The implementation of step 130 may be for example the same as the implementation of step 115 described above Details of method 100 are described in more detail below especially in connection with FIG 9 FIG 1B illustrates another method method 150 of com municating with a remote device using one or more camera body controls As with method 100 of FIG 1A method 150 of FIG 1B is useful for a number of purposes including allow ing a photographer to use modeling lighting to check for unwanted and or wanted lighting effects and levels that will appear in images captured using flash photography allowing a photographer to control operation of remote special effects allowing a photographer to control ambient and in scene lighting allowing a photographer to control remotely con trollable devices appearing in a photographic scene and any combination thereof all without having to remove an eye from the camera s viewfinder or live view display Method 150 typically begins at step 155 by detecting whether or not a user has actuated one or more camera body controls of a camera body in a first preset pattern setup to correspond to the user s desire to control one or more con trollable devices located remote fr
46. S Patent CAL ISSN cri 00 US 8 326 136 B1 Sheet 13 of 13 Dec 4 2012 U S Patent 001 020 ALA SALWLS SOHS 9 1 QNVNWOO SNOLLVOINDWIAOO 30HS Vaso 8021 502 US 8 326 136 B1 1 SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR COMMUNICATING WITH A DEVICE USING ONE OR MORE CAMERA BODY CONTROLS RELATED APPLICATION DATA This application claims the benefit of priority of U S Pro visional Patent Application No 61 151 881 filed on Feb 12 2009 and titled Systems And Methods For Communicating With A Device Using One Or More Camera Body Controls which is incorporated here in by reference in its entirety FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention generally relates to the field of pho tography In particular the present invention is directed to systems and methods for communicating with a device using one or more camera body controls BACKGROUND Photography is an integral component of modern society and photographs pervade our lives Photographic images appear for example in books magazines catalogs journals newspapers billboards posters and scrapbooks and are dis played in homes art galleries retail stores shopping malls office buildings and many other places While many photo graphic images are acquired using only natural ambient light many other images are acquired using photographic flash lighting When image acquisition flash lighting is used a photogr
47. US008326136B1 United States Patent 10 Patent No US 8 326 136 B1 Clark 45 Date of Patent Dec 4 2012 54 SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR 3 810214 A 5 1974 Malone et al COMMUNICATING WITH A DEVICE USING P d 27 due E ara et al ONE OR MORE CAMERA BODY CONTROLS 4333719 A 6 1982 Takami et al 4 344 680 A 8 1982 Ishida et al 75 Inventor James E Clark South Burlington VT 4 351 594 A 9 1982 Ishida 3 al US 4 355 309 A 10 1982 Hughey et al Continued 73 Assignee Lab Partners Associates Inc South Burlington VT US FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this SN 20975800204204 6 2010 patent is extended or adjusted under 35 Continued U S C 154 b by 300 days OTHER PUBLICATIONS 21 Appl No 12 705 096 Affadavit of James E Clark FlashWizard II Synchronizer signed 22 Filed Feb 12 2010 Mar 20 2008 previously submitted in U S Appl No 11 697 241 12 Continued Related U S Application Data 60 Provisional application No 61 151 881 filed on Feb FIAT Examiner Clayton E L aballe 12 2009 Assistant Examiner Leon W Rhodes Jr 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Downs Rachlin Martin 51 Int CI PLLC G03B 15 02 2006 01 G03B 15 05 2006 01 57 ABSTRACT iuuenes E control system for communicating with a controlle 52 U S Cl 396 56 396 4 396 164 396 299 A 1 f icati ith Iled 58 Field of Classification Search 396 1 5
48. a either of an integrated user interface 270 and a wired communications port 272 Because modeling lighting device 212 does not have a built in wireless communications device like generator pack 256 the modeling lighting device is supplemented with an external RF wireless communications device 276 that is in wired communication with wired communications port 272 of the device In this example modeling lighting device 212 is configured to be toggled between two user preset illumi nation output levels set by a user via integrated user interface 270 in response to it receiving a certain trigger signal Con sequently wireless communications device 276 is in wireless RF communication with controller 216 so as to receive first and second IOC signals which may be the same as one another that cause wireless communications device 276 to provide each certain toggling trigger signal to modeling light ing device 212 In this connection wireless communications device 276 includes an RF receiver not shown In other embodiments wireless communications device 260 may also include an RF transmitter or alternatively to separate RF receiver and transmitter an RF transceiver It is noted that in yet other embodiments wireless communications may be implemented using another communication technique such as visible light communication e g using a strobe attached to controller 216 and infrared communication among oth ers In this example wireless RF
49. a s viewfinder the pho tographer can turn the modeling lighting on make any needed illumination output adjustments and then turn the modeling lighting off using one or two finger controls that the photog rapher is already intimately familiar with As a specific example and assuming the camera has a combination click wheel and the remote device controller is responsive to signals therefrom as follows the photographer could turn the modeling lighting on by rapidly double press ing the click wheel steps 910 915 920 This would also put the camera into a modeling lighting control mode step 940 Then while in this mode the photographer could adjust the light output of the modeling lighting by turning the click wheel steps 945 950 and then make the assessment of the lighting effect s Once the photographer has finished the lighting assessment the photographer may then turn the mod eling light off and change the camera back to its normal operating mode by again rapidly double pressing the click wheel steps 930 935 955 The photographer could then move on to image capturing As mentioned above this gen eral process can be used to control and make power output level adjustments to a host of devices While FIGS 2 8 are directed specifically to controlling modeling lighting devices and FIG 9 was explained largely in the context of modeling lighting methods incorporating broad concepts disclosed herein such as methods 100 1
50. apher often uses one or more modeling lights prior to image acquisition for any of a variety of reasons such as checking for unwanted shadows glare reflection etc and or checking for desired shadows and other lighting effects Gen erally these modeling lights are either kept powered up to a sufficient level or turned up to a sufficient level when needed Keeping the modeling lighting powered up can be problem atic due to the heat this type of lighting generates which can be uncomfortable for live models and detrimental to heat sensitive still subjects Occasionally turning up the power of modeling lighting can be inconvenient even using more recent remotely controlled modeling lights Many photographic images are acquired without adding special effects to the captured scene However many other photographic images are acquired using added special effects such as artificial wind snow mist and rain and or using contrived scenes that use in scene props and other items such as in scene lighting Today many special effects generators for example fans snow shakers misters and rain systems are turned off and on electronically using dedicated on off and or speed power control switches Similarly in scene lighting can often be controlled using such dedicated control switches Typically a photographer or more often a photographer s assistant has the task of controlling the operation of any special effects devices and in scene lighting
51. art will readily be able to implement the broad concepts of the present disclo sure for virtually any one or more camera body controls and or any one or more camera body signals The detection of the one or more camera body signals can be performed inter nally or externally relative to the camera body for example by a controller such as a microprocessor software systems hardware controller a combination of these or other cir cuitry Several examples of internal and external detection are described below in detail At step 110 a power state change signal for controlling one or more remote devices is generated in response to the detec tion of the preset camera body control actuation pattern in step 105 Like detecting step 105 generating step 110 can be performed internally or externally relative to the camera body depending on the configuration of the overall system For example if a particular camera body includes an internal controller generating step 110 can be performed internally In another example in which a controller is provided externally to a camera body generation step 110 is performed outside the camera body As will become apparent from the detailed examples provided below the first power state change signal can be for example a signal recognizable directly by the target 1 controlled device s or recognizable by an inter mediate device such as a wireless receiving device that in turn generates one or more sig
52. body control functionality and not any functionality relating to controlling a controlled device As an example a scroll wheel on the camera body that is normally used to control camera body functionality such as setting a flash compensa 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 tion value can be used as a power state control that controls the power output level for example an illumination output level of a controlled lighting device a motor speed of a controlled device having such a motor such as a special effects fan To provide this control mode functionality when method 150 has changed the functionality of one or more camera body controls method 150 proceeds to step 165 at which it detects whether or not a user ofthe camera body has actuated the one or more camera body controls the functionality of which was changed in step 160 Again as a simple example in which a scroll wheel normally used for setting a flash com pensation value has been changed at step 160 to have con trolled device control functionality step 165 detects whether or not a user has rotated the scroll wheel As those skilled in the art will readily appreciate the manner in which this detec tion will vary with the control s involved In the example of the scroll wheel a microprocessor aboard the camera body may for example monitor an electrical signal from a rota tional position transducer as it may when monitoring for rotationa
53. communications among con troller 216 wireless RF communications device 260 of gen erator pack 256 and wireless RF communications device 276 of modeling lighting device 212 includes the ability of each of these devices to distinguish signaling meant for it from sig naling meant for any other device This can be accomplished in any of a variety of ways such as by each device having a unique address and including in each transmission the unique address es of the device s intended to receive a particular transmission Further detail of such signaling techniques is beyond the scope of this disclosure and is not needed for those skilled in the art to implement such techniques since they are known in the art As those skilled in the art will readily appreciate hotshoe 220 has a number of electrical contacts not shown for com municating various signals to and or from an accessory typi cally a flash device or strobe controlling radio mounted to the hotshoe In this example camera body 204 is of a type that outputs a camera body wake sleep signal s via one of the pins denoted the first pin and outputs a camera body auto focus assist signal via the same first pin Also in this example the camera body wakeup signal is characterized by a first voltage change here from a low level to an intermediate level the camera body sleep signal is characterized by a second voltage change here from the intermediate level to the low 20 25 30
54. controller 216 determines or knows Backlight B L mode 428 is enabled However if Wake mode 420 is enabled step 515 at step 545 controller 216 determines whether or not it detects a camera body wake signal In this example as seen further below in connection with FIG 7 the camera body wake signal is an analog signal indicated by an inter mediate level rise in a line voltage on the first pin of hotshoe 220 FIG 2 In this example a high level rise in that line voltage indicates the presence of an AFA signal see FIG 7 and accompanying description When this line voltage is at the intermediate level voltage the camera body wake signal is said to be present Correspondingly a drop in the line voltage from the intermediate level voltage corresponds to a sleep signal If controller 216 detects a camera body wake signal at step 545 method 500 proceeds to step 550 which in this example is implemented because the method is set up to continually loop through the various branches ofthe method At step 550 controller 216 determines whether or not it has already sent a first IOC signal based upon an earlier recognition that the camera body wake signal was high in this example at the intermediate level voltage If controller 216 has not already sent such first IOC signal method 500 proceeds to step 555 wherein the controller generates and transmits that first IOC signal As will be seen below relative to FIG 7 in this example step 5
55. corresponding signaling suitable for use in the camera body interface of a controller such as the controller of FIGS 2 and 3 FIG 9 is a flow diagram illustrating another method of using a camera body to control illumination output of mod eling lighting FIG 10 is a high level diagram illustrating a flexible con trol system for controlling a host of devices including mod eling lighting devices special effects devices non modeling continuous lighting devices and in scene non lighting devices using one or more camera body controls of a camera body 5 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 4 FIG 11 is an elevational view of a photography studio containing a photographic system that includes a camera ambient lighting devices and an in scene lighting device wherein the system is configured to allow a photographer to control operation ofthe ambient lighting devices and in scene lighting device using the body of the camera and FIG 12 is a diagram illustrating a digital camera body status communication signal containing autofocus assist and backlight information that a controller of the present disclo sure can use to control one or more modeling lighting device 5 DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring now to the drawings FIG 1A illustrates a method 100 of communicating with a remote device using one or more camera body controls As will be readily under stood by those skilled in the art after reading this entire
56. croprocessor receives another power state instruction such as another illumination output setting or a power off instruction However when the onboard microprocessor of generator pack 256 receives an instruction set containing first and second power level set tings and a delay setting the built in microprocessor first changes the illumination output of continuous light source 252 to the first power level setting holds the illumination US 8 326 136 B1 11 output for the delay setting and then changes the illumination output to the second power level setting The power level setting may be expressed in any convenient form such as percentage of maximum output power absolute input power or absolute output power among others The delay setting may also be expressed as any convenient value such as num ber of seconds minutes or other predefined periods In this example modeling lighting device 212 is a standa lone modeling lighting device that utilizes a continuous light source on hidden side of device 212 but such as a tungsten bulb a light emitting diode LED or an array panel of LEDs to provide continuous light at a user selectable illumi nation output level Such a modeling lighting device is avail able from Elinca Geneva Switzerland among other photo graphic lighting manufacturers Modeling lighting device 212 includes an onboard controller not shown that can be set to any one of various illumination output levels vi
57. ctuation has occurred As mentioned above a preset pattern can be any of a variety of sequential actuation of any one or more camera body controls or simultaneous actuation of two or more camera body controls or a combination thereof For the sake of illustration a rapid triple partial pressing of shut ter release button 224 e g a user partially presses the shut ter release button three times in uninterrupted sequence within about one second is used as the preset actuation pat tern for toggling a modeling lighting control mode on and off In other words when step 915 detects the rapid triple partial press every odd numbered time following startup at step 905 i e every 17 377 5 7 etc time after startup the modeling lighting controller enters the modeling lighting control mode When the modeling lighting controller enters the modeling lighting control mode it generates and transmits a first IOC signal or more generally a first power state change signal to one or more modeling lighting and or other controlled devices such as multifunctional lighting system 208 and or modeling lighting device 212 of FIG 2 Again it is noted that method 900 is not limited by this example to controlling modeling lighting devices Rather the same and similar con cepts can be used to control any of a wide variety of other devices such as the special effects devices 1016 1108 FIGS 10 and 11 the non modeling lighting continuous lighting d
58. d 20 seconds That is the power states of fan 1108 and post light 1112 are very low upon the first power state change and are off after the expiration of the second delay The 20 second delay gives the photographer about a 20 second window for captur ing images As mentioned above studio lighting devices 1104 are con trolled using Backlight mode 428 FIG 4 and during image capturing it is desired that the studio lighting be turned off To facilitate this studio 1100 includes a special switch 1148 that can be toggled on and off under wireless control Conse quently switch 1148 includes a wireless receiver not shown but evidenced by antenna 1152 Referring to FIG 4 sub mode 444B of Backlight mode 428 is selected this example so that when the camera body backlighting is turned on switch 1148 and hence studio lighting devices 1104 are turned off Then when a photographer is ready to acquire one or more images of scene 1116 under low level lighting con ditions the photographer simply needs to turn the camera backlighting on for example using a backlighting control switch 1156 on camera body 1120 The photographer may do this at any desired time for example after he she turns on fan 1108 and post light 1112 which can be accomplished by actuating a partial press of a shutter release button 1160 on camera body 1120 As described above a partial press typi cally causes a camera body such as camera body 1120 to generate a ca
59. d signal 37 A method according to claim 31 wherein said detecting of the second preset pattern includes detecting a second sequential actuation of a particular camera body control on the camera body 38 A method according to claim 37 wherein said detecting ofthe second sequential actuation includes detecting a second sequential partial pressing of the shutter release button 39 A machine readable hardware storage medium con taining machine executable instructions for performing a method of communicating with a controlled device using a camera body said machine executable instructions compris ing a first set of machine executable instructions for detecting a first preset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one first camera body control on the camera body wherein said detecting of the first preset pattern includes detect ing a first sequential actuation of a particular camera body control on the camera body wherein said detecting of the first sequential actuation includes detecting a sequential partial pressing of a shutter release control a second set of machine executable instructions for in response to said detecting of the first preset pattern of actuation changing the camera body functionality of a 5 20 25 40 45 36 third camera body control of the camera body to a power adjustment functionality for controlling the controlled device a third set of machine executable instructions for after
60. delay value Since in this example controller 216 does not detect another AFA signal within about 5 seconds again the preset delay of second AFA signal 608 after the built in timer of wireless communications device 260 times out as seen by modeling light illumination output curve 612 this communi cations device initiates the second power change and changes the modeling light output level to the second power change level here 60 Referring now to FIGS 2 4 and 7 timing diagram 700 of FIG 7 is an example for a scenario in which both Wake and AF Assist modes 420 424 are enabled In this example when the controller 216 detects a leading edge 704A of a wake signal 704 it generates and transmits a modeling light instruction set that contains the first power change level When wireless communications device 260 receives that instruction set as illustrated by modeling light illumination output curve 708 it changes via generator pack 256 the mod eling light output level from whatever level it was previously set to here 1096 to the first power change level here 5096 As seen from timing diagram 700 while camera body 204 remains awake and correspondingly wake signal 704 remains high the camera body generates first and second AFA signals 712 716 in this example 1 5 seconds apart from one another When controller 216 detects the leading edge 712A of first signal 712 it generates and transmits a modeling light instructi
61. djustment control functionality said detecting ofthe user actuation of the third camera body control including detecting a rotating of a rotary control a fourth set of machine executable instructions for gener ating a plurality of power adjustment signals in substan tial synchronicity with the rotating of the rotary control a fifth set of machine executable instructions for control ling wireless transmission of the plurality of power adjustment signals so as to cause the controlled device to continuously change power states in accordance with the power adjustment signal a sixth set of machine executable instructions for imple menting following the wireless transmission of the plu rality of power adjustment signals detection of a second preset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one second camera body control on the camera body and a seventh set of machine executable instructions for in response to said detecting of the second preset pattern of actuation changing the power adjustment control func tionality of the third camera body control back to the camera body control functionality 12 A machine readable hardware storage medium accord ing to claim 11 wherein said first set of machine executable instructions includes machine executable instructions for implementing detection of a first sequential actuation of a particular camera body control on the camera body 13 A machine readable hardware storage medium accord ing
62. do not provide their hotshoes with any signaling 1 wake sleep autofocus assist backlighting etc if they do not recognize that a com patible device has been engaged with the hotshoe Conse quently in such cases wireless controller 216 can be config ured with an appropriate system for causing camera body 204 to provide the needed signals U S patent application Ser No 12 129 402 filed on May 29 2008 and titled System and Method For Maintaining Hot Shoe Communications Between A Camera and A Wireless Device discloses such systems and is incorporated herein by reference for all of its teachings on these systems Referring now to FIG 3 and also to FIG 2 in this example controller 216 includes among other things a microproces sor 300 a hotshoe connector 304 a camera body signal inter face 308 memory 312 an external communications port 316 an RF transmitter 320 and an antenna 324 It is emphasized at this point and will be recognized by those skilled in the art US 8 326 136 B1 13 that the components of this example and their arrangement are presented for the sake of illustration and not limitation Skilled artisans will understand that given the wide range of technologies available for implementing the overarching functionality disclosed herein there are many ways of imple menting this functionality For example while the various parts of controller 216 are shown as components discrete from one another a
63. e inactivity delay value for example if it never receives a second IOC signal in the normal course of method 500 Again this can happen in this example if camera body 204 never generates a sleep signal and or controller 216 never transmits a second IOC signal among other events The inac tivity illumination output value setting may be the same as or different from either or both of the illumination output value settings in fields 436B 440B of GUI 412 At step 540 if controller 216 detects or knows that Back light B L mode 428 FIG 4 is not enabled method 500 simply loops back to step 510 However if Backlight mode 428 is enabled at step 575 controller 216 determines whether or not a camera body signal e g either an on or off signal has occurred If not method 500 simply loops back to step 510 However if controller 216 detects a camera body B L signal at step 575 it proceeds to step 580 to determine whether or not it has already sent a first IOC signal at step 585 to modeling lighting device 212 FIG 2 in this case simply a toggling signal If controller 216 determines it has not sent the first IOC signal method 500 proceeds to step 585 and sends that signal It is noted that if modeling lighting device 212 were so enabled to respond to transmitted first and second US 8 326 136 B1 19 change levels the transmission of the relevant signaling at step 585 could include such a level value After controller 216
64. e 420 camera body autofocus assist signals Assist mode 424 and camera US 8 326 136 15 body backlight controls signals Backlight mode 428 Cor respondingly GUI 412 provides three primary selection con trols here a common GUI type checkboxes 432A C corre sponding respectively to the three modes 420 424 428 As will be seen below a user can select any one any two or all three of these modes 420 424 428 as desired If a user selects checkbox 432A indicating Wake mode 420 the wake mode parameter selection input fields 436A C become active In this example Wake mode selection fields 436A C are for inputting three desired values respectively 1 a first illumination output level in this example the illumina tion output level to which to change the modeling lighting of multifunctional lighting system 208 FIG 2 as a function of controller 216 detecting a camera body wake signal 2 a second illumination output level here the illumination output level to which to change the modeling lighting of the multi functional lighting system from the first illumination output level and 3 a delay value used to determine when to cause the second illumination output level change In this example illumination output levels are expressed as a percentage of the maximum illumination output and the delay value is expressed in seconds Ifa user selects checkbox 432B indicating AF Assist mode 424 the autofocus assist para
65. e device controller would interpret this action as requiring it to trans mit to the one or more controlled devices a series of decreas ing power state changes in a coordinated manner with the turning of the scroll wheel This adjustment via click wheel corresponds to step 945 of method 900 at which the remote device controller detects whether or not a power adjustment condition in the foregoing example the turning of the scroll wheel portion of click wheel 288 is occurring If so method 900 proceeds to step 950 at which the remote device controller generates and transmits to the one or more controlled devices one or more illumination output adjustment signals In the context of generator pack 256 of multifunction light system 208 of FIG 2 which has a robust set of operating instructions such an adjustment signal may include a series of transmitted illumination power levels corresponding to the user s movement of the wheel portion of click wheel 288 If at step 945 the remote device controller does not detect a power adjustment condition method 900 proceeds to step 930 where the controller determines whether or not a preset actuator pattern is detected If not the camera body remains in the remote device control mode and method 900 loops back to step 945 However if the remote device controller detects the preset camera body control actuation pattern that causes the controller to end the remote device control mode method 900 proceeds to
66. e instructions for implementing detection of a rotating of a rotary control 42 A machine readable storage medium according to claim 41 further including an eighth set of machine executable instructions for gen erating a plurality of power adjustment signals in sub stantial synchronicity with the rotating of a rotary con trol and a ninth set of machine executable instructions for control ling wireless transmission of the plurality of power adjustment signals in substantial synchronicity with the rotating ofthe rotary control so as to cause the controlled device to continually change power states 43 A machine readable storage medium according to claim 40 wherein the controlled device is a lighting device and said generating of the power adjustment signal includes generating a first illumination output adjustment signal 44 A machine readable storage medium according to claim 40 wherein the controlled device includes a motor and said generating of the power adjustment signal includes gen erating a first motor speed signal 45 A machine readable storage medium according to claim 39 wherein said fourth set of machine executable instructions includes instructions for detecting a second sequential actuation of a particular camera body control on the camera body 46 A machine readable storage medium according to claim 45 wherein said fourth set of machine executable instructions includes instructions for detecting a second sequen
67. e same like or other control functionality can be built into a camera body A potential advantage of building a controller implementing broad con cepts of the present disclosure into a camera body is that a greater variety of camera body signals would likely be avail able since typically only a subset ofthe signals generated by a camera body are normally available externally to a camera body through various ports on the camera body For example and referring to FIG 9 and also to FIG 2 FIG 9 illustrates a method 900 of using one or more camera body controls such as shutter release control button menu on off button scroll wheel selector button a k a click wheel camera body backlighting control etc to control power states of a controllable device such as the modeling lighting functionality of multifunctional lighting system 208 and or modeling light 212 FIG 2 the special effects devices 1016 1108 FIGS 10 and 11 the non modeling lighting continu ous lighting devices 1020 1104 1112 FIGS 10 and 11 and or the in scene non lighting devices 1024 FIG 10 Relative to example camera body 204 that camera body includes shutter release button 224 a menu on off switch 284 a click wheel 288 and backlighting control switch 236 As mentioned above shutter release button 224 of camera body 204 implements the common partial half press feature that activates a partial press switch not shown that results in a partial press
68. es such control by interpreting one or more patterns of user actuation of one or more camera body controls to be instruc tions for controlling operation of modeling lighting As used herein and in the appended claims the term pattern is intended to cover multiple actuations ofone or more controls such as three rapid partial presses of a shutter release button as well as the simultaneous and or sequential actuation of two or more controls such as actuating backlighting control switch 236 while holding down menu on off switch 284 among many other possibilities As will be readily appreci ated by those skilled in the art there are so many possible scenarios of such patterns that it is not practical or even possible to list every one That said those skilled in the art will understand that whatever pattern s is are selected for implementation an important overarching concept is that each pattern be so as to minimize the likelihood of the pattern US 8 326 136 23 or any portion thereof inadvertently changing a camera body setting not relating to the control of modeling lighting Method 900 begins at step 905 for example when the camera body here camera body 204 is powered on At step 910 camera body 204 operates as it normally would upon powering up from an off state At step 915 a remote device controller monitors control signaling occurring within cam era body 204 to determine whether a preset pattern of control a
69. es a built in timer to handle the delay values set in fields 436C 440C of GUI 412 this communications device may be augmented with addi tional timer functionality to account for instances where either camera body 204 never generates in this example a sleep signal such as when a user turns the camera body off while it is still awake or controller 216 never transmits a second IOC signal such as when a user turns off the control ler before detecting a sleep signal and or transmitting the second IOC or a receiver failing to receive a second IOC signal for example because of interference between the transmitter and receiver In such a case wireless communi cations device 260 can include a second timer that is reset with a delay value herein called an inactivity delay value each time it receives a first IOC signal This inactivity delay value will typically be stored in wireless communications device 260 and should be a value greater than any reasonably anticipated value for either of the delay values set in fields 436C 440C of GUI 412 FIG 4 In one example the inac tivity delay value is set to 10 minutes though many other values may be used In conjunction with the inactivity delay value wireless communications device 260 may also be programmed with a inactivity illumination output value setting that the wireless communications device can load into generator pack 256 if the wireless communications device s timer times out on th
70. es of a cam era body signal generated internally within the camera body include but are not limited to a camera body wake signal a camera body sleep signal an autofocus assist signal a camera body backlighting on off signal a menu control signal a flash compensation signal a signal from a click wheel or other user control such as a partial press switch signal generated upon a partial press ofa shutter release button Examples of a camera body signal generated externally include but are not limited to a partial press switch signal initiated from an external device and communicated to the camera body for example via an external communications port on the camera body e g a hotshoe a proprietary connector port a motor drive port a universal serial bus USB port a FIREWIRE IEEE 1394 port etc and any other camera body signal that can be initiated or generated externally from the camera body Specific examples are described below in detail to give the reader an understanding of how step 105 can be implemented However those skilled in the art will appreciate that con trols provided to a particular camera body and camera body control signals vary to a great extent such that it is impractical to cover all current conventional camera body controls and camera body control signals and that it is virtually impossible to predict future camera body controls and camera body con trol signals That said those skilled in the
71. es the camera body to enter into a controlled device control mode that changes the functionality of one or more camera body con trols from a camera body functionality to a controlled device control functionality or both Such a system can allow a photographer to control a controlled device while remaining at the camera body 46 Claims 13 Drawing Sheets 6 9 600 VOLTAGE 4 H H 5S DELAY DENN OUTPUT US 8 326 136 B1 Page2 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 2003 0128272 1 7 2003 Clough et al 2003 0133018 Al 7 2003 Ziemkowski 4 482 895 A 11 1984 Weinberg 2003 0193588 Al 10 2003 Yuen et al 222 2100 UT E 2004 0036774 Al 2 2004 Nichols et al et al 2005 0006484 Al 1 2005 Ito 4 573 786 A 3 1986 Taniguchi et al 2005 0174434 Al 8 2005 Chang et al 525 PN Egawa et al 2006 0014563 Al 1 2006 Cheng 2 1937 On 2006 0216009 Al 9 2006 Kawamura 396 55 4 693 582 A 9 1987 Kawamura et al 2006 0275024 AN 12 2006 McNary IUS 2006 0291016 Al 12 2006 Ishigami et al T So 319802 DES 2008 0065137 Al 3 2008 Boucher et al 4816855 3 1989 Kitaura et al 2 P 225 stal eoe ing 4 884 094 A 11 1989 Kitaura et al 2009 0135262 Al 5 2009 Ogasawara 4 988 584 A 1 1991 Shaper 2009 0278479 Al 11 2009 Platner et al 5 016 037 A 5 1991 Taniguchi et al 2009 0310012 A1 12 2009 Ueda et al 2222 22 348 348 Taniguchi et al 2010 0158494
72. eset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one second camera body control on the camera body after said changing ofthe camera body functionality to the power adjustment functionality and a seventh set of machine executable instructions for chang ing the power adjustment control functionality of the third camera body control back to the camera body con trol functionality in response to said detecting of the second preset pattern of actuation 26 A machine readable hardware storage medium accord ing to claim 25 wherein the controlled device is a continuous lighting device and said fourth set of machine readable instructions includes machine executable instructions for generating a first illumination output adjustment signal 27 A machine readable hardware storage medium accord ing to claim 25 wherein the controlled device includes a motor and said fourth set of machine readable instructions includes machine executable instructions for generating a first motor speed signal 28 A machine readable hardware storage medium accord ing to claim 25 wherein said first set of machine executable instructions includes machine executable instructions for implementing detection of a first sequential actuation of a particular camera body control on the camera body 29 A machine readable storage medium according to claim 25 wherein said first set of machine executable instructions includes machine executable instructions for implementing detec
73. etecting a second preset pattern of actua tion by a user ofat least one second camera body control on the camera body and in response to said detecting of the second preset pattern of actuation changing the power adjustment control func tionality of the third camera body control back to the camera body control functionality 2 method according to claim 1 wherein said detecting of the first preset pattern includes detecting a first sequential actuation of a particular camera body control on the camera body 3 A method according to claim 2 wherein said detecting of the first sequential actuation includes detecting a sequential partial pressing of a shutter release control 4 A method according to claim 2 wherein said detecting of the second preset pattern includes detecting a second sequen tial actuation of a particular camera body control on the camera body 5 A method according to claim 4 wherein said detecting of the first sequential actuation includes detecting a first sequen tial partial pressing of a shutter release control and said detecting of the second sequential actuation includes detect ing a second sequential partial pressing of the shutter release button 6 A method according to claim 1 wherein the controlled device is a lighting device and said generating ofa plurality of power adjustment signals includes generating an illumination output change signal 7 A method according to claim 6 wherein the lighting
74. evices 1020 1104 1112 FIGS 10 and 11 and or the in scene non lighting devices 1024 FIG 10 Depending on the robustness of the wireless control scheme of each device so controlled in a manner similar to method 500 of FIG 5 described above the transmitting of the first power state change signal may or may not be accompa nied by a power level setting such as an illumination output level that the controlled device is to be changed to upon receiving the first power state change signal In one example this change power level to value may be input into the remote device controller in a manner similar to the manner illustrated in FIG 4 relative to controller 216 of FIG 2 In another example the remote device controller implementing the method of FIG 9 may simply send effectively a toggle command to one or more controlled devices that causes each such device to toggle from one power state e g illumination output level to another such as from off to on or vice versa Itis noted that a remote device controller that implements method 900 may be the same as or similar to controller 216 of FIGS 2 and 3 or controller 1028 of FIG 10 Indeed an external controller such as controller 216 itself could be configured to perform method 900 for a number of camera bodies Although most if not all currently available camera bodies do not make half press switch signals available through a hotshoe e g hotshoe 220 many camera bodies
75. f a photographer s thumb and a second in response to the camera body via autofocus cir cuitry not shown determining that a lens 232 attached to the camera body needs to be actuated to bring the scene into focus The generation of camera body autofocus assist signals in both of these manners is well known in the art such that further description 1s not necessary herein for those skilled in the art to implement the broad concepts disclosed herein In this example backlight B L mode of controller 216 uses a camera body 204 backlighting control signal generated by camera body to control scene illumination output levels of modeling lighting device 212 In this case camera body 204 includes a backlighting control button 236 that a user uses to turn backlighting of one or more displays such as LCD display panel 240 on the camera body on and off as desired 5 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 It is noted that differing camera body models have differing ways of handling backlighting functionality and signaling For example some current camera body models have on actuators like backlight control button 236 whereas others haveon switches In most current camera bodies each type of actuator is used in conjunction with a built in timer used to control when the camera body turns the backlighting off In addition some current camera body models make the camera body backlighting signaling available at the hotshoe of
76. generates and transmits an IOC signal at step 585 method 500 loops back to step 510 If however at step 580 controller 216 determines that it has already sent a first IOC signal e g in response to a user turning camera body backlighting on method 500 proceeds to step 590 at which the controller generates and transmits a second IOC signal here simply another toggle signal for example in response to the user turning the camera backlighting off After controller 216 gen erates and transmits an IOC signal at step 590 method 500 loops back to step 510 It is noted that as with additional optional steps of method 500 relating to AF Assist mode 424 various additional optional steps may be added relative to Wake and Backlight modes 420 428 For example various disabling steps and or interrupt steps may be added to disable certain functionality and or to allow ones of the various modes to interrupt one another Those skilled in the art will readily understand how to implement the illustrated and other steps using well known programming and or circuit design techniques Referring now to FIGS 6 8 and also to FIGS 2 and 4 FIGS 6 8 illustrate example timing diagrams 600 700 800 for scenarios involving ones ofthe Wake and AF Assist modes 420 424 FIG 4 As mentioned above these diagrams 600 700 800 are for a camera body such as camera body 204 of FIG 2 that communicates wake and autofocus assist signals via common hotshoe contacts
77. h a controlled device using a camera body said machine executable instructions compris ing a first set of machine executable instructions for imple menting detection ofa first preset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one first camera body control on the camera body 25 30 40 45 50 55 60 34 a second set of machine executable instructions for chang ing the camera body functionality of a third camera body control of the camera body to a power adjustment func tionality for controlling the controlled device in response to the detection of the first preset pattern of actuation a third set of machine executable instructions for detecting user actuation ofthe third camera body control while the third camera body control has the power adjustment control functionality said detecting user actuation ofthe third camera body control including detecting a rotating of a rotary control a fourth set of machine executable instructions for gener ating a plurality of power adjustment signals in substan tial synchronicity with the rotating of the rotary control a fifth set of machine executable instructions for control ling the wireless transmission the plurality of power adjustment signals in substantial synchronicity with the rotating ofthe rotary control so as to cause the controlled device to continually change power states a sixth set of machine executable instructions for imple menting detection ofa second pr
78. her actuator mechanical soft or otherwise camera body signal can also be generated by circuitry internal to a camera body in response to any one or more of a variety of events such as a user actuating a switch e g a partial press a k a half press of a shutter release button or a press of an autofocus button or a depth of field preview button or the actuation of a camera body mode dial and camera body circuitry determining a particular function is needed e g a camera processor determining that the lens needs to be autofocused among others Examples of a cam era body signal generated internally within the camera body include but are not limited to a camera body wake signal a camera body sleep signal an autofocus assist signal a camera body backlighting on off signal a menu control signal a flash compensation signal a signal from a click wheel or other user control such as a partial press switch signal generated upon a partial press ofa shutter release button Examples of a camera body signal generated externally include but are not limited to a partial press switch signal initiated from an external device and communicated to the camera body for example via an external communications port on the camera body e g hotshoe a proprietary connector port a USB port a FIREWIRE IEEE 1394 port etc and any other camera body signal that can be initiated or generated externally from the camera body Specific exa
79. i JP 2002 244193 A 8 2002 6 625 399 BL 9 2003 Davis JP 2002 318413 10 2002 6 683 654 1 2004 Haijima JP 2003 172970 A 6 2003 6 718 135 B2 4 2004 Kawasaki et al JP 2003 325451 11 2003 6 731 952 B2 5 2004 Schaeffer et al JP 2004 072230 3 2004 6 748 165 B2 6 2004 Ogasawara JP 2006 149935 6 2006 6 778 764 B2 8 2004 Barghini et al JP 2007 067870 A 3 2007 6 798 986 B2 9 2004 Hagiuda KR 10 0728117 6 2007 6 941 067 B2 9 2005 Muramatsu 9638925 12 1996 7 016 603 B2 3 2006 Clark WO PCT US2003 37271 5 2004 7 035 534 B2 4 2006 Shih et al WO PCT US2007 066162 11 2007 7 133 607 B2 11 2006 Clark WO PCT US2006 028229 2 2008 7 184 658 B2 2 2007 Squillace WO PCT US2008 065137 9 2008 7362965 B2 4 2008 Clark WO PCT US2008 065139 9 2008 7 431 063 B2 10 2008 Clark WO PCT US2010 024088 7 2010 7 463 304 2 12 2008 Murray Wo 2010093914 Al 8 2010 7702228 B2 42010 Clark WO 2010093927 Al 8 2010 7 764 875 B2 7 2010 Clark WO 2010093994 A1 8 2010 7 775 575 B2 8 2010 Clark WO PCT US2010 024108 9 2010 7 783 188 B2 8 2010 Clark WO PCT US2010 024195 9 2010 7877005 B2 1 2011 Okubo WO PCT US2011 044008 11 2011 7 880 761 B2 2 2011 Clark WO 2012009537 A1 1 2012 7 885 533 B2 2 2011 Clark WO PCT US2012 025915 6 2012 7 965 335 B2 6 2011 Niblock 7 969 504 B2 6 2011 Matsuda etal 348 371 OTHER PUBLICATIONS 7 970 267 Bl 6 2011 Clark 8 116 620 B2 2 2012 King Analog Devices Technical Data Sheet for ADF7020 1 Transceiver n B 200 IC Analog Devices Inc 2005
80. inguished Also during image capture fan 1108 is used to create a gentle breeze so as to cause lit candle 1132 to flicker slightly In this example the remote device controller is built into camera body 1120 and includes an RF transmitter not shown but evidenced by antenna 1136 on the camera body As mentioned both fan 1108 and post light 1112 are being con trolled using Wake mode 420 FIG 4 Here a single power controller 1140 which includes a built in RF receiver not shown but evidenced by antenna 1144 is used to control both fan 1108 and post light 1112 by varying the electrical power provided to those devices Power controller 1140 in this example includes a built in timer not shown and is configured to be responsive to wireless signals containing power state change settings and a delay value in a manner similar to the modeling light of multifunctional lighting sys tem 208 of FIG 8 Consequently when the remote device controller detects a wake signal it generates and transmits a signal that contains 1 the power state for power controller 1140 to change fan 1108 and post light 1112 to upon receipt of the signal 2 the power state for the power controller to change the fan and post light to when the delay times out and 3 the delay value These correspond to the values set in fields US 8 326 136 B1 29 436A C of GUI 412 of FIG 4 Note that in the present case the values for fields 436A C are respectively 10 0 an
81. l position changes of the scroll wheel in a flash compensation context Alternatively other signals relating to the rotational position ofthe scroll wheel can be used such as an output of the microprocessor based on the transducer sig nal mentioned above Those skilled in the art will readily understand that other manners of detection are possible and that it is impractical and unnecessary to describe all such possibilities It is noted too that circuitry external to the camera body at issue could be used to perform the various detection and or other steps of method 150 if the relevant signal s are made available outside of the camera body such as via one or more ports on the camera body In response to the detection of user actuation at step 165 method 150 may proceed to step 170 at which one or more power adjusting signals are generated For example if the camera body control s having changed functionality provide a simple on off functionality only one power adjust signal may be generated at step 170 In other cases such as with a continuous rotation of the scroll wheel in the scroll wheel example more than one power adjust signals can be gener ated In a particular embodiment of a scroll wheel a continu ous rotating of the scroll wheel by a user may cause a con tinual generation of incremental power adjust signals that function to cause the controlled device to incrementally adjust in its power state For example ifthe control
82. led device is a continuous light lighting source having variable illumi nation output a rotating of the scroll wheel in one direction will cause the lighting source to gradually brighten and a rotating ofthe scroll when in the opposite direction will cause the lighting source to gradually dim In the context of a controlled device having a variable speed motor the same rotations of the scroll wheel will cause the motor to respec tively gradually speed up and slow down In concert with the generation of one or more power adjust signals at step 170 at step 175 the power adjust signal s are communicated to the controlled device at issue This communication may be via any suitable wired or wireless communication mode At step 180 it is determined whether or not the user has actuated one or more camera body controls in a second preset pattern which may be the same as or different from the first preset pattern at step 155 If so this is a signal that the functionality of the one or more camera body controls that changed functionality from camera body functionality to con trolled device control functionality at step 160 are to be returned to normal camera body functionality This occurs at step 185 It is noted that the steps of method 150 may not necessarily all be performed every time For example a user US 8 326 136 B1 9 can implement the first preset pattern that is detected at step 155 but decide not to make any adjustments
83. make such signaling available via one or more other external ports on the camera body for example a USB port or a proprietary port Often this is done to allow a camera body to be remotely controlled Consequently an external controller enabled to perform method 900 could include a connection such as a wired connection e g wired connection 290 of FIG 2 between a camera body port having access to partial press signaling and itself e g proprietary port 292 The circuitry aboard such a controller for example camera body signal interface 308 and microprocessor 300 FIG 3 could 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 24 beconfigured to recognize the preset pattern such as the rapid triple partial press mentioned above In alternative embodi ments like the alternative embodiments mentioned above relative to controller 216 vis a vis FIG 3 a modeling light controller that implements method 900 or similar method may be located substantially entirely internally to the camera body For example the microprocessor s and other circuitry and software e g firmware already present with a particular camera body for providing non remote control functionality can be adapted to provide the functionality embodied in method 900 Those skilled in the art will readily understand how to implement such a camera body based scheme If the remote device controller does not detect a preset camera body control actuation pattern
84. mera body wake signal which the remote device controller aboard the camera body then uses to perform the process of controlling fan 1108 and post light 1112 via power controller 1140 Those skilled in the art will readily under stand that this example is merely illustrative and in no way should be construed as limiting There are many ways of controlling studio lighting devices 1104 fan 1108 post light 1112 and other devices using the broad concepts disclosed herein Studio 1100 of FIG 11 also includes an LED array mod eling lighting device 1164 which in this example is powered by a battery pack 1168 Modeling lighting device 1164 can be controlled using any suitable one of the control schemes disclosed herein for controlling remote devices such as the control schemes described above or devised in the spirit ofthe specifically disclosed control schemes and the present disclo sure advantage of implementing such a control scheme in connection with LED array modeling lighting device 1164 other than the sheer ease is that the device can be controlled to be turned on and or adjusted to the appropriate power level substantially only when its light 15 needed thereby reducing the power drain on battery pack When such control schemes are utilized with other modeling lighting devices and other light devices generally these control schemes can greatly reduce usage of those devices thereby extending the time between replacements of burned
85. meter selection input fields 440A C become active In this example autofocus assist mode selection fields 440A C are for inputting three desired values respectively 1 a first illumination output level in this example the illumination output level to which to change the modeling lighting of multifunctional lighting system 208 FIG 2 as a function of controller 216 detecting a camera body wake signal 2 a second illumination output level here the illumination output level to which to change the modeling lighting of the multifunctional lighting system from the first illumination output level and 3 a delay value used to deter mine when to cause the second illumination output level change In this example illumination output levels are expressed as a percentage of the maximum illumination out put and the delay value is expressed in seconds Ifa user selects checkbox 432C indicating Backlight mode 428 a pair of parameter selection checkbox controls 444A B become active In this example Backlight mode 428 has two sub modes 448 In first sub mode 448A the controlled device here modeling lighting device 212 FIG 2 is turned on when a user turns on the camera body backlighting and is turned off when the user turns off the camera body backlight ing In second sub mode 448B the controlled device is turned off when a user turns on the camera body backlighting and is turned on when the user turns off the camera body backlight ing It
86. mple utilizing click wheel 288 on camera body 204 this change of mode means that the camera body changes the functionality of the scroll wheel from any of its conven US 8 326 136 B1 25 tional uses such as flash compensation adjustment to a con trol for adjusting the illumination output of modeling lighting essentially in real time while the camera body is in the mod eling lighting control mode The same mode of control could also be used for example to adjust the speed of a special effects fan the speed ofa snow shaker the output of a misting device and the illumination output of in scene lighting among many other things As those skilled in the art will appreciate utilizing the scroll wheel functionality of click wheel 288 as a power adjustment control can be readily accomplished in camera body control software firmware in conjunction with an appropriately configured remote device controller that utilizes the variable signal resulting from a user turning the scroll wheel For example as a user turns the scroll wheel of click wheel 288 in one direction the remote device controller could interpret this action as requiring it to transmit to one or more controlled devices a series of increasing power state changes e g illumination output levels speed levels etc in a coordinated manner with the turning of the scroll wheel Conversely when the user turns the scroll wheel of click wheel 288 in the opposite direction the remot
87. mples are described below in detail to give the reader an understanding of how step 105 can be implemented However those skilled in the art will appreciate that con trols provided to a particular camera body and camera body control signals vary to a great extent such that it is impractical to cover all current conventional camera body controls and camera body control signals and that it is virtually impossible to predict future camera body controls and camera body con trol signals That said those skilled in the art will readily be able to implement the broad concepts of the present disclo sure for virtually any one or more camera body controls and or any one or more camera body signals The detection of the one or more camera body signals can be performed inter nally or externally relative to the camera body for example by a controller such as a microprocessor software systems hardware controller a combination of these or other cir cuitry Several examples of internal and external detection are described below in detail At step 160 and in response to the detection of the preset pattern at step 155 the functionality of one or more camera body controls is changed from camera body functionality to controlled device control functionality At this point the camera body can be said to enter into a controlled device mode as distinct from a camera body control mode in which the camera body control s at issue has have only camera
88. mu nications device 260 implements a pair of illumination level change delay setting The use ofthese parameters and settings is described below in greater detail Wireless communications device 260 is in wireless RF communication with controller 216 so as to receive one or more instructions sets for controlling the operation of mul tifunction lighting system 208 In this connection wireless communications device 260 includes an RF receiver not shown In other embodiments wireless communications device 260 may also include an RF transmitter or alterna tively to separate RF receiver and transmitter an RF trans ceiver It is noted that in yet other embodiments wireless communications may be implemented using another commu nication technique such as visible light communication e g using a strobe attached to controller 216 and infrared communication among others When an instruction of instruction set depending on the communication protocol containing a power level setting is received by the built in microprocessor of generator pack 256 for example via built in wireless communications device 260 an external port 264 or a built in user interface 268 the onboard microprocessor changes the output illumination level of continuous light source 252 to the setting provided in that instruction set If a delay value is not also provided with the instruction set continuous light source 252 will stay at the new setting until the mi
89. nal in response to the detection of the second preset pattern of actuation and a sixth set of machine executable instructions for controlling communication of the second power state change signal so as to cause the controlled device to operate at a second power state In still another implementation the present disclosure is directed to a method of communicating with a controlled device using a camera body The method includes detecting a first preset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one first camera body control on the camera body in response to the detecting ofthe first preset pattern of actuation changing the camera body functionality of a third camera body control of the camera body to a power adjustment functionality for controlling the controlled device after the changing of the camera body functionality to the power adjustment function ality detecting a second preset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one second camera body control on the camera body and in response to the detecting of the second preset pattern of actuation changing the power adjustment control functionality of the third camera body control back to the camera body control functionality In yet another implementation the present disclosure is directed to a machine readable storage medium containing machine executable instructions for performing a method of communicating with a controlled device using a camera body The machine executable instructi
90. nals recognizable by the con trolled device s The relevant signaling depends on the over all configuration of the system As will also be discussed below the first power state change signal may be accompa nied by and or contain data such as one or more power level values and or a power state change time delay value for a subsequent power change among others Examples of such data are described below in the detailed examples At step 115 the first power state change signal is commu nicated to the at least one controlled device so as to cause device s to operate at a first power state corresponding to the power state change signal As alluded to above relative to generating step 110 the way the controlled device s are caused to operate at the first power state depends on the configuration of the overall control system For example if a particular controlled device has user settable power levels settings that can be input wirelessly then the system can be configured for example so that the power state change signal 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 contains a desired power level setting In another example if a particular controlled device has user settable power level settings that can be input only either through an onboard user interface on the device or through a wired port on the device then the system may include two wireless devices a first one at the camera body and a second one connected to the
91. nd forth between a manual mode and an automatic mode five times succes sively within 5 seconds In this example this is the actuation pattern that is looked for by the controller at steps 915 and 930 of method 900 of FIG 9 When the controller has detected this pattern at the relevant one of steps 920 935 it generates and transmits to one or more remote devices one or more power state change signals that change the power state of the remote device s For example the controller and remote device s may be set up so that at the first detection of the noted pattern at step 915 the controller generates and transmits at step 920 one or more power state change signals that turn on the remote device s This could occur for example at the beginning of a photo shoot when the photog rapher wants to turn on the remote device s after they have been off Then at the end of the shoot the user could create the same noted pattern for detection at step 930 In response to the detection of that pattern the controller would generate and transmit at step 935 one or more power state change signals to turn off the remote device s This can be very useful in that it allows one person to control some or all of the powered device using during a photo shoot from a single location with minimal effort Exemplary embodiments have been disclosed above and illustrated in the accompanying drawings It will be under stood by those skilled in the art that various
92. ntrol and like terms mean a control that causes a signal to be generated either internally or externally relative to the camera body and that is used to control functionality inherent in the camera body itself any lens attached thereto and any image acquisition flash lighting device attached to the camera body or responsive to a flash sync signal gener ated by the camera body Because the present disclosure is directed to controlling devices starting prior to any image capturing a shutter release signal is excluded from being a relevant camera body signal As those skilled in the art will appreciate the term shutter as used herein and in the appended claims is intended to refer to a mechanical shutter anelectronic shutter and any combination thereof and equiva lent thereto A camera body signal can be generated by a user actuating any type of switch or other actuator mechanical soft or otherwise camera body signal can also be generated by circuitry internal to a camera body in response to any one or more of a variety of events such as a user actuating a switch e g a partial press a k a half press of a shutter release button or a press of an autofocus button or a depth of field preview button or the actuation of a camera body mode dial and camera body circuitry determining a particular function is needed e g a camera processor determining that the lens US 8 326 136 B1 5 needs to be autofocused among others Exampl
93. ny two or more of the parts can be inte grated onto a single integrated circuit chip for example as a system on chip Similarly various ones of the differing parts can be integrated with one another For example any memory provided may be partially or completely integrated with for example the microprocessor Further variations include the fact that RF transmitter 320 and corresponding antenna 324 can be replaced by another type of transmitting system such as an infrared or visible light transmitter An analog of the latter is a hotshoe mounted strobe device capable of sending data wireless to a remote strobe device using specially timed pulsed emissions from a flash tube In still further variations the parts of controller 216 provided to enable its functionality externally relative to a camera body such as camera body 204 of FIG 2 can be eliminated and most of the remaining parts adapted for loca tion inside a camera body except perhaps for an antenna strobe or other wireless signal transmitting device In the case of putting the functionality of a controller of the present disclosure such as controller 216 into a camera body this can be accomplished by retrofitting an existing camera body or by designing the functionality into a new camera body design prior to production In the latter case any micropro cessor s circuitry used for the modeling lighting control functionality disclosed herein could be the same micropro cessor
94. o select which mode s of device control operation the user desires to enable and also allows a user to set the appropriate parameter s for each of the selected modes Itis noted that the example shown in FIG 4 is simply that exemplary In other implementations the programming of a controller made according to the present disclosure can be accomplished in any one or more of a number of ways For example the controller can be provided with a user interface such as an LCD screen and one or more buttons or other input devices a touchscreen etc that allow a user to program the controller In other implementations control parameter val ues for the controller can be set with one or more mechanical buttons switches and or dials etc In yet other implementa tions control parameter values can be set wirelessly for example using a wireless port as mentioned above In such a case the programming device could be a smartphone e g BlackBerry device iPhone device PDA laptop computer desktop computer dedicated programming device etc Those skilled in the art will understand and appreciate the variety of ways that a controller of the present disclose can be pro grammed with desired control parameter values if the con troller is not preset with the desired values or is not program mable As mentioned above in the present example controller 216 is configured to have control functionality based on cam era body wake signals Wake mod
95. ody controls FIG 1B is a flow diagram illustrating another method of communicating with a device using one or more camera body controls FIG 2 is a diagram of a photographic system that includes a camera a wireless controller a remote multifunctional lighting system incorporating a modeling lighting source and a special effects fan wherein the system is configured to perform steps of the methods of FIG 1A and or FIG 1B FIG 3 is a high level diagram of the wireless controller of FIG 2 FIG 4 is a diagram illustrating a computer based environ ment for configuring a wireless controller such as the exter nal wireless controller of FIGS 2 and 3 FIGS 5 together contain a flow diagram illustrating a method of controlling the scene illumination output of mod eling lighting using a controller having a wake mode an autofocus assist mode and a backlight mode such as the controller of FIGS 2 and 3 FIG 6 is an example timing diagram illustrating function ing ofthe autofocus assist mode of a wireless controller such as the controller of FIGS 2 and 3 using the control settings illustrated on the screen ofthe graphical user interface of FIG 4 FIG 7 is an example timing diagram illustrating function ing of the wakeup mode of a controller such as the controller of FIGS 2 and 3 using the control settings illustrated on the screen of the graphical user interface of FIG 4 FIG 81s a diagram illustrating circuitry and
96. om the camera body Again the term pattern is intended to cover multiple actua tions of one or more camera body controls such as three rapid partial presses ofa shutter release button as well as the simul taneous and or sequential actuation of two or more controls such as actuating a backlighting control button while holding down a menu on off switch among many other possibilities In addition it is noted that as used herein and in the appended claims the term camera body control and like terms mean a control that causes a signal to be generated either internally or externally relative to the camera body and that is used to US 8 326 136 B1 7 control functionality inherent in the camera body itself any lens attached thereto and any image acquisition flash lighting device attached to the camera body or responsive to a sync signal generated by the camera body Because the present disclosure is directed to controlling devices starting prior to any image capturing a shutter sync signal and related signals for triggering controlling strobe lighting devices for image acquisition lighting are excluded from being a relevant cam era body signal As those skilled in the art will appreciate the term shutter as used herein and the appended claims is intended to refer to a mechanical shutter an electronic shutter and any equivalent thereto camera body signal can be generated by a user actuating any type of switch or ot
97. on set in a manner essentially the same as described above relative to FIG 6 This instruction set includes the first power change level the second power change level and the delay for the AF Assist mode here respectively 8096 6096 5 seconds Upon receiving such instruction set as seen by modeling light illumination out put curve 708 generator pack 256 changes its modeling light power output to 8096 and sets its internal timer to 5 seconds Like the example of FIG 6 if controller 216 does not detect another AFA signal in about 5 seconds from detecting first AFA signal i e about the time of the AF Assist mode delay value the built in timer of wireless communications device 260 will time out and will cause generator pack 256 to make the second power level change to the preset level here 6096 However in the scenario illustrated in FIG 7 within about 1 5 seconds of detecting first AFA signal 712 controller 216 detects second AFA signal 716 which in this example causes the controller to send the same instruction set it sent in response to the detection of first signal When wireless communications device 260 receives this second instruction set as seenby modeling light illumination output curve 708 it initiates via generator pack 256 the first modeling light power level change which is not actually a change since the first power change level had already been set in response to first AFA signal 712 and re sets
98. ons include a first set of US 8 326 136 B1 3 machine executable instructions for implementing detection of a first preset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one first camera body control on the camera body a second set of machine executable instructions for changing the camera body functionality of a third camera body control of the camera body to a power adjustment functionality for control ling the controlled device in response to the detection of the first preset pattern of actuation a third set of machine execut able instructions for implementing detection of a second pre set pattern of actuation by a user of at least one second camera body control on the camera body after the changing of the camera body functionality to the power adjustment function ality and a fourth set of machine executable instructions for changing the power adjustment control functionality of the third camera body control back to the camera body control functionality in response to the detecting of the second preset pattern of actuation BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For the purpose of illustrating the invention the drawings show aspects of one or more embodiments of the invention However it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown in the drawings wherein FIG 1A is a flow diagram illustrating a method of com municating with a device using one or more camera b
99. ore of controlled devices 1012 1016 1020 1024 To accomplish this remote device controller 1028 includes a controlling means 1032 and a transmitting means 1036 Controlling means 1032 detects the one or more camera body signals designated for controlling the one or more controlled devices 1012 1016 1020 1024 and in response thereto generates the appropriate signal s and any corresponding information such as device identifier s for identifying the particular device s for receiving the signal s Controlling means 1032 can be implemented in any of a variety of ways in a manner similar to controller 216 discussed above relative to FIGS 2 9 These ways include a microprocessor and software firmware combination a microprocessor software and hard circuitry combination and hard circuitry alone Those skilled US 8 326 136 B1 27 in the art will readily understand how to implement any of these ways when confronted with particular camera body signaling and other design parameters The signals generated by controlling means will have any ofa variety of configura tions depending on the robustness of the signaling the rel evant ones of controlled devices 1012 1016 1020 1024 are designed to handle Such signaling ranges for example from a simple toggling signal to signals that include power state settings for the first and second power state change delay settings and device identification codes Transmitting means 1036 transmits
100. out light bulbs This can result in significant cost savings in replacement bulbs over time As mentioned above remote device control functionality disclosed herein can be implemented regardless of whether the camera body signal s utilized is are analog signals or digital signals The examples of FIGS 6 8 above are directed to utilizing analog AF assist and backlighting control signals of a corresponding camera body that generates such signals to achieve the described exemplary remote device control functionality For the sake of completeness FIG 12 illustrates a digital camera body status communication sig nal 1200 that generally includes digital equivalents to the AF assist and backlighting signals discussed above In this example when the camera body is awake the camera body 5 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 65 30 continually broadcasts camera body flash status and settings information via communication signal 1200 in the form of digital data bursts here 1204 1208 1212 1216 1220 that each contain for example 12 to 24 bytes of status informa tion bits of which indicates statuses of various camera body flash status and settings In this example FIG 12 shows four bytes 1220A D of such 12 to 24 bytes of burst 1220 and one of these bytes 1 byte 1220B contains a status bit 1224 of interest In this example status bit 1224 is a bit that indicates whether or not the backlight is on with a high value
101. processor not shown of camera body 1008 and transmitting means 1036 implemented in an external accessory RF transmitter an example of the latter control ling means 1032 may be implemented in the onboard micro processor not shown of camera body 1008 and transmitting 5 25 40 45 50 55 28 means 1036 implemented an onboard transmitter provided in the camera body for example at the time of manufacture Regardless of how remote device controller 1028 is con figured relative to camera body 1008 it may readily be con figured to perform methods of the present disclosure such as methods 100 150 of FIGS 1A B For example remote device controller 1028 may be configured to have the same or similar functionality as described above relative to controller 216 in connection with FIGS 2 9 including the programma bility illustrated relative to FIG 4 and the signaling and functioning illustrated relative to FIGS 5 9 In this connec tion it is noted that the functionality of controller 216 described above relative to FIGS 2 9 is specific to modeling lighting However those skilled in the art will understand that the illumination output levels and control of modeling light ing devices 208 212 are readily translatable into power state levels and control of non modeling lighting devices such as special effects devices 1016 non modeling continuous light ing devices 1020 and in scene non lighting devices 1024
102. ra body 204 FIG 2 If controller 216 has not detected camera body AFA signal method 500 simply proceeds to step 515 to determine whether Wake mode 420 is enabled On the other hand if controller 216 has detected a camera body AFA signal at step 525 controller 216 generates and transmits an illumination output change signal In this example since generator pack 256 FIG 2 of multifunction lighting system 208 has built in wireless communication device 260 and is responsive to instructions containing illumination level set tings step 525 includes transmitting the first change level set in field 436A of GUI 412 In this example controller 216 transmits the first change level signal as soon as possible after it detects the camera body AFA signal At step 530 controller implements the delay set in field 436C of GUI 412 In this example generator pack 256 has an internal timer and is responsive to wirelessly received instruc tions that include delay values Consequently in one example when controller 216 transmits the IOC signal along with the first illumination level at step 525 at the same time it trans mits the set delay value Those skilled in the art will under stand that other implementations can utilize a timer function built into the controller At step 535 controller 216 causes the modeling light to change to the second change level set in field 436B of GUI 412 In the present example in which generator pack 256 1s responsive to a
103. ribed below in connection with FIG 8 It is noted however that not all camera systems use analog signals to communicate infor mation such as wake sleep autofocus assist and backlight on off externally from the camera body Other camera sys tems handle such communication digitally for example using digitally encoded signals In such cases the camera body interface may simply be a data link to the microproces sor Yet other camera systems may implement a hybrid approach wherein one or more signals are analog and one or more signals are digitally encoded In the context of a micro 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 14 processor based controller the camera body interface would be configured to handle both types of signaling As alluded to above memory 312 is used generically in FIG 3 to denote any and all types of memory in communi cation with controller 216 including BIOS memory and RAM among others that are as mentioned above integrated into microprocessor 300 and or provided externally to the microprocessor Memory 312 contains information wireless controller 216 needs to perform its functionality such as but not limited to machine executable instructions 326 for enabling the functionality of the controller controller setup data controlled modeling light device parameter settings such as illumination output levels and delay values con trolled device instructions sets and communications set
104. s circuitry that controls conventional camera func tionalities In yet other variations any microprocessor soft ware implementation envisioned herein could be replaced by a purely hardware implementation at the choice of the designer It is also noted that depending on the nature of the particular controller the transmitter could be supplemented with a receiver or both could be replaced by a transceiver without departing from the spirit of the embodiments dis closed and intended to be covered by the appended claims Returning now to the illustrative example microprocessor 300 performs a host of functions including but not limited to executing machine executable instructions 326 e g firm ware stored in memory 312 communicating with camera body interface 308 controlling communicating with commu nications port 316 controlling communicating with transmit ter 320 and providing wireless controller 216 with its unique functionality Camera body interface 308 receives signals from a camera body such as camera body 204 of FIG 2 for example via hotshoe 220 and transforms those signals as needed for use by microprocessor 300 Signals that camera body interface 308 is configured to transform in this example are a camera body wake sleep signal a camera body autofo cus assist signal and a camera body backlight signal An example of circuitry suitable for use in camera body interface 308 when these signals are analog voltage signals is desc
105. said changing of the camera body functionality to the power adjustment functionality detecting a second preset pat tern of actuation by a user of at least one second camera body control on the camera body and a fourth set of machine executable instructions for in response to said detecting of the second preset pattern of actuation changing the power adjustment control func tionality of the third camera body control back to the camera body control functionality 40 A machine readable storage medium according to claim 39 further comprising a fifth set of machine executable instructions for imple menting detection of user actuation of the third camera body control while the third camera body control has the power adjustment control functionality a sixth set of machine executable instructions for generat ing while the third camera body control has the power adjustment control functionality a power adjustment signal in response to said detecting of user actuation of the third camera body control and a seventh set of machine executable instructions for con trolling while the third camera body control has the power adjustment control functionality communication of the power adjustment signal so as to cause the con trolled device to operate in accordance with the power adjustment signal 41 A machine readable storage medium according to claim 40 wherein said fifth set of machine executable instructions includes machine executabl
106. t least one second camera body control on the camera body generating a second power state change signal in response to the detecting of the second preset pattern of actuation and communicating the second power state change signal so as to cause the controlled device to operate at a second power state In another implementation the present disclosure is directed to a machine readable storage medium containing machine executable instructions for performing a method of communicating with a controlled device using a camera body The machine executable instructions include a first set of machine executable instructions for implementing detection of a first preset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one first camera body control on the camera body a second set of machine executable instructions for generating a first power state change signal in response to the detection of the first preset pattern of actuation a third set of machine executable instructions for controlling communication of the first power state change signal so as to cause the controlled device to operate at a first power state a fourth set of machine execut able instructions for implementing following the communi cation of the first power state change signal detection of a second preset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one second camera body control on the camera body a fifth set of machine executable instructions for generating a second power state change sig
107. the communications device s timer to the preset delay value Since in this example controller 216 does not detect another AFA signal within about 5 seconds again the preset delay of second AFA signal 512 after the built in timer of wireless communica tions device 260 times out as seen by modeling light illumi nation output curve 508 the wireless communications device US 8 326 136 B1 21 initiates the second power change and changes the output level of the modeling light to the second power change level here 60 In this example after the timer internal to wireless com munications device 260 has timed out from second AFA signal 716 camera body 204 is still awake for a few seconds asindicated by wake signal 704 still being high Camera body 204 may remain awake for example because a user contin ues to hold shutter release button 224 at half press However once controller 216 detects the trailing edge 704B of wakeup signal 704 1 a sleep signal it generates and transmits to wireless communications device 260 a modeling light instruction set containing the wakeup mode second power change level here 1596 and the wake mode delay here 2 seconds When wireless communications device 260 receives this instruction set it sets its internal delay timer to 2 seconds When the internal timer times out as seen by modeling light illumination output curve 708 wireless com munications device 260 causes generator pack 256 to
108. tial partial pressing of the shutter release button
109. tion lighting system 208 in one the other or both of a wake mode and an autofocus assist mode depending on a user s preference and to control modeling lighting device 212 in a backlight control mode Briefly wake mode of con troller 216 uses a camera body wake signal and a correspond ing camera body sleep signal each generated by camera body 204 to control scene illumination output levels of continuous type modeling lighting of multifunction lighting system 208 The wake signal may be generated by any of a variety of controls on camera body 204 However a very useful control for a photographer to use to initiate the wake signal is a shutter release button 224 on camera body 204 a partial press com monly referred to as a half press of which causes the camera body to generate a wake signal The corresponding sleep signal 15 typically automatically generated by camera body 204 for example by an internal microprocessor after a preset time following release of the shutter release or other control Autofocus assist AFA mode of controller 216 uses a camera body autofocus assist signal generated by camera body 204 to control scene illumination output levels of the modeling lighting of multifunction lighting system 208 In this example camera body 204 is configured to generate an autofocus assist signal intwo ways a first inresponse to a user pressing an autofocus button 228 located on the cam era body within ready reach o
110. tion of a sequential partial pressing of a shutter release control 30 A machine readable storage medium according to claim 25 wherein said seventh set of machine executable instructions includes machine executable instructions for implementing detection of a second sequential actuation of a particular camera body control on the camera body 31 A method of communicating with a controlled device using a camera body comprising detecting a first preset pattern of actuation by a user of at least one first camera body control on the camera body wherein said detecting ofthe first preset pattern includes detecting a first sequential actuation of a particular cam era body control on the camera body wherein said detecting of the first sequential actuation includes detecting a sequential partial pressing of a shutter release control in response to said detecting of the first preset pattern of actuation changing the camera body functionality of a US 8 326 136 B1 35 third camera body control of the camera body to a power adjustment functionality for controlling the controlled device after said changing of the camera body functionality to the power adjustment functionality detecting a second pre set pattern of actuation by a user of at least one second camera body control on the camera body and in response to said detecting of the second preset pattern of actuation changing the power adjustment control func tionality of the third
111. transmit ting to wireless controller a second IOC signal that includes the second change level setting set in field 440B of GUI 412 along with a set timer instruction and the delay value set in field 440C of GUI 412 At step 570 controller 216 causes the 0 5 40 45 50 60 65 18 modeling lighting of multifunction lighting system 208 to change to the second change level set in field 440B of GUI 412 Again controller 216 performs step 570 by way of the transmitting of the set delay value to wireless communica tions device 260 at the same time as the second change level setting Generator pack 256 then changes the illumination output level of the modeling lighting to the second change level when the timer in second wireless communications device times out on the delay In other embodiments steps 565 and 570 can be handled differently For example if con troller 216 wereto have the timer functionality step 565 could involve the controller setting the timer and step 570 could involve the controller transmitting the second change level upon timing out of the timer Of course other possibilities exist It is noted too that the delay could be initiated for example from the initial wake signal detection rather than the sleep signal detection After controller has performed steps 565 570 method 500 loops back to step 540 In another variation in which wireless communications device 260 at generator pack 256 includ
112. wer state change signal turned on a particular remote device the second power state change signal turns off that device Method 900 then loops back to step 910 and the camera body such as camera body 204 FIG 2 1008 FIG 10 1120 FIG 11 operates in its normal non remote de vice control mode while the modeling lighting remains in whatever state it just turned to in response to step 935 In the foregoing steps of method 900 just described the camera body could be considered to not have changed modes of operation at any time but rather may be considered to simply send appropriate first and second power state change signals in response to the controller detecting the correspond ing preset camera body control actuation pattern s In an alternative embodiment illustrated by the portion of method 900 in dashed lines the camera body may be considered to change modes since the functionality of one of the camera body controls e g click wheel 288 changes to suit a par ticular purpose after the modeling lighting controller has transmitted the first power state change signal at step 920 In one example the first power state change signal transmitted at step 920 causes modeling lighting to turn on from an off state Instead of continuing normal operation of the camera body at step 925 method 900 proceeds to step 940 at which the camera body may be said to change its mode of operation to a remote device control mode In one exa
113. wired input port of the controlled device In one scenario the first wireless device at the camera body may transmit a simple remote device trigger signal to the second wireless device at the controlled device In this case upon receiving the trigger signal the second wireless device would for example send the illumination output level setting If multiple controlled devices are being controlled at the same time via wireless devices each of these devices may have a unique identifier that a properly configured system can utilize to implement differing control schemes among the multiple devices Detailed examples of ways of implementing transmitting step 115 are presented below At step 120 it is determined whether or not a user has performed a preset pattern of camera body control actuation This preset pattern may be the same as the preset pattern described above relative to step 105 or it may be different depending on the desire of the designer Like step 105 the preset pattern can be detected from camera body signals generated internally or externally relative to the camera body Atstep 125 a power state change signal for controlling the one or more remote devices is generated in response to the detec tion of the preset camera body control actuation pattern in step 120 Like generating step 110 generating step 125 can be performed internally or externally relative to the camera body depending on the configuration of the overall system

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